Kangas and Bulls appear set to re-appoint 2016 coaches

Grand finalists North Albany and Mt Barker appear set to reappoint league coaches Craig Dew and Shane Thompson, who led their respective clubs to this year’s Great Southern Football League decider.

As GSFL clubs begin the process of appointing their coaches for the 2017 season, the Kangas and Bulls have indicated they will be sticking with the same men who took their sides into the grand final in September.

Dew signed on with the Kangas for one season when he took the league reins and went on to become a premiership coach in his first senior season in charge.

North Albany president Iian Woods said they were already in discussion with Dew about 2017, but were advertising the role as per normal.

“We’ve advertised,” Woods said.

“The applications close at the end of the month.

“Dewy’s keen to go around again and I think we will be very happy to go with (him) again — we’ve already met with him.”

The Kangas applications close on November 30 and Woods expects an announcement early next month.

The Bulls are also close to re-appointing Thompson after he returned to his former club this year to help turn the club’s on-field fortunes around dramatically, as they reached their first grand final since 2005.

Mt Barker president Gordon Reid said they were expecting to have their coaches for next season locked in before Christmas.

“We’ll have to go through the process again (advertising the job),” Reid said.

“The expectation is (Shane) will go around again, we want to continue to build on what we did this season.

“We want to have (an appointment) done sooner rather than later; over the next six weeks, we want to get our coaches sorted and the players who we want to retain.”

As flagged last week in theAlbany Advertiser, Railways are searching for a new league coach to replace Wayne Stubber, with the club currently advertising the position.

Albany has also advertised their league coaching role, with applications closing last week.

Royals confirmed they are in the process of appointing coaches for next year and began advertising last week while Denmark-Walpole will wait until after their annual general meeting, which has been pushed back to December 16.

Matt Candy, who has coached the Magpies for the past two seasons, has indicated he wants to continue on but the club has to advertise the role in keeping with their procedures.