The wife of new Riddell District Football Netball League operations manager Steven Williams has already joked she won’t see her husband on weekends until October.
Williams, 46, started the job two weeks ago in place of the outgoing Toby Boyle. And it was a case of perfect timing.
“I am a bit of a football nut and I love AFL,” Williams said last week.
“I was at Hewlett Packard for 20 years. I took redundancy in October and I was looking for a role to keep me occupied.
“I was looking for something more local and this came up. I was lucky to get it.”
The Gisborne resident’s recent involvement with the league has been limited to the junior side of things.
He has lived in Gisborne for about 12 years after growing up in the Macedon Ranges.
“My son is in his final year of under-16s [at Gisborne Rookies] and I’ve probably been involved since he was in under-10s,” Williams said. “Between 2013 and 2015 I was a coach there and I took on the role of coaching co-ordinator for this season.
“I also helped set up the Gisborne Giants [a new junior team] but had to step down from both when I got the job.”
Williams played footy in the RDFL more than 20 years ago.
“I played some junior footy in Woodend and Kyneton and the same with senior football,” he said.
“I stopped when I was about 25 and moved to Adelaide.”
Williams has had no involvement with netball, but has been working with league netball manager Kim Bailey to learn what he needs to know.
He said his immediate concern was to make sure it was a smooth transition in the lead-up to the season, which begins on April 9.
“I hope I can continue the work Toby has done … he has done a really good job,” he said.
“My objective is to make sure it’s as seamless as possible and to get to know clubs and build relationships with senior and junior teams.
“I’m still trying to get my head around it.”
Williams said he would settle into the role and then start to look ahead.
“I hope I can bring new ideas to the league and clubs,” he said.
“I’ll look to work with the wider community to impart some of my knowledge.”
