Melton Centrals have appointed Glenn Hopkins as senior coach for next season.
Hopkins, who has a strong background in the Riddell District Football League, brings a wealth of experience, having coached Woodend-Hesket for the past three years and, before that, Diggers Rest.
Melton Centrals’+ football operations manager Brian McNabb said Hopkins was the perfect candidate.
“Glenn has a great history of developing junior players through to senior level,” McNabb said.
“That’s something that really stood out. We want our local boys playing football.
‘‘We want to help develop them both on and off the ground, to ensure that when they’re at senior level they’re ready and certainly in a good position to handle the situation.”
Hopkins replaces outgoing Centrals coach Brian Wheelahan, who stepped down at the end of the season, having led them for three years.
The past season was disappointing for Melton, which finished 10th on the RDFL ladder with five wins.
The club has reappointed Drew Heath as reserves coach, while Anthony Rhodes will again lead the under-18s.
The Centrals plan to kick off preseason training in mid-November.
In the meantime, the club plans to announce a few key recruits in coming weeks.
“We aren’t going to go very heavily into recruiting,” McNabb said.
“But we would like to think we can get one forward and one back, and a couple of guys to play through the middle.
“We want to make sure we’re targeting quality people who will be good for the club on and off the field.”
The Centrals’ senior best and fairest award was won by Nathan Richardson.
He polled 76 votes to edge out Luke Wilson and Glen Ryan.
The reserves best and fairest award went to Scott Matthew, while James Ould won the under-18 award.
