BY his own admission a more calm Denis Grinton is returning to the coaches box at Huntly.
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The Hawks have announced Grinton as their new coach, taking over from their 2017 co-coaches Jamie Hogan and Ryan Semmel.
Grinton previously coached the Hawks in 2000 and 2001, while he has spent the past two years as an assistant coach at the Bendigo Pioneers.
Grinton has also coached at Mount Pleasant and Mitiamo – leading the Superoos into the 2015 Loddon Valley league grand final – but believes he will be much better equipped for the role this time on the back of his two years in the TAC Cup system with the Pioneers.
“I’m really thankful for the opportunity I’ve had at the Pioneers and I’ve learned a lot from Brett Henderson and Rick Coburn that has helped to fine-tune my skills as a coach,” Grinton said.
“Off the back of the past two years I think I’m a lot better prepared for coaching. I think this time I’ll have more calmness about me and not getting too overawed about the result… it’s more about the process of how you get the result.”
Huntly president Sam Walker says the coaching experience Grinton brings, coupled with his involvement with the Pioneers, is exciting for the Hawks.
“Denis will bring fresh ideas to the club and having been around footy for a long time, he should be able to get a lot of people back involved at the club,” Walker said.
“And with his Pioneers’ experience in terms of keeping up with modern day football, that’s something we were looking at as well with our new coach.”
Grinton takes over at Huntly on the back of the Hawks having finished third the past two years with a pair of preliminary final losses to North Bendigo.
“I’ll talk to most of the players over the next few days and it looks like we’ll keep the majority of the group,” Grinton said.
“I’ve been around a long time and know it’s inevitable that you will lose two or three players, but we expect to maintain most of them.”
In Grinton’s previous stint as Hawks coach they finished fifth in 2000 and fourth in 2001 in what was the last year they made the finals until 2012.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have also appointed a new under-17 coach in Steven Clohesy.