Oliver has a long history with the Bendigo Football League through both his decorated playing career at Castlemaine and the five years he spent as the league’s chief executive officer that ended in May, last year.

But having been away from the game in an official capacity for nearly 18 months, the desire to get back involved has landed him the top job at the Bloods.

“Footy clubs are great to be involved in from a social and family perspective, and from all the checking I’ve done, South Bendigo has a really good culture,” Oliver said on Saturday.

“South was disappointed with how it performed on the field this year and is hoping to bring through a group of young kids and they’ve done a great job in getting their junior structure in order.

“From my personal perspective, I’ve been out of footy for 18 months or so now, but I got to watch a fair bit of football this year and still felt I may have something to offer to the young guys.”

Oliver takes over at the Bloods with the club coming off its first senior wooden spoon since 1965 when it won just two games this year.

“I can bring a different perspective and the way I would like South to play its footy is something that appeals to the club,” Oliver said.

“I’ve had a few meetings with the club and outlined my philosophies on footy and where they need to get to to become competitive.

“The Bendigo Football-Netball League is terrific in regards to skill and standard and the bar continually gets lifted higher and higher.

“It’s a great challenge for the young blokes at the club to step up and compete against some real quality teams and the first thing will be to instill some competitiveness into the mix.”

Equally high on Oliver’s list of priorities in his coaching is to ensure the Bloods enjoy their football.

“You’ve got to enjoy your football and being part of it,” Oliver said.

“I’ve been fortunate to have been part of some successful teams and one of the key ingredients of that was everyone got along at the club, both on and off the field.

“And that’s what really appeals to me about South... there’s a really good group of younger guys there who have got a taste of it this year, which will hold them in good stead.

“They’ve seen the level they need to be at and we’ll give them a strong pre-season.

“We’ll make sure they enjoy it, but there will be hard work.

“You can’t come from the bottom to wanting to compete with the top teams without doing a lot of hard work.”

Oliver has taken on the coaching job at South Bendigo having previously carved out a legendary career as a full-forward at fellow BFL club Castlemaine, where he’s one of the Magpies’ most revered figures.

Oliver is a dual premiership player with the Magpies, had two coaching stints at the club, kicked 1030 goals, won four BFL Ron Best Medals, and was named one of Castlemaine’s 25 greatest players during its 150th celebrations in 2009.

Oliver has two sons, Nicholas and James, who played at Castlemaine this year.

“Everyone has a history somewhere and mine is at Castlemaine, but I’ve been away for a long time,” said Oliver, who is the general manager of the Bendigo Golf Club.

“I’m a life member at Castlemaine and very proud of that and I’ll always be a part of Castlemaine.

“But  it’s good to be excited about getting into a new challenge.”

South Bendigo president Rick Townsend said Oliver ticked all the boxes of what the Bloods were looking for in their new coach.

“We wanted someone who was well respected in the community, has a reasonably high profile and would be well organised,” Townsend said.

“We’ve got no doubt the players will respect Steven given his playing history and what he’s done in the community, and with the way he presented to us in terms of how we can improve and the type of footy we need to play, it really resonated with us as well.

“He brings a wealth of experience through his playing career and his work with the league and communicates really well, so we’re looking forward to having him on board as our new coach.”