HAVING both been part of premiership teams with Picola United in recent seasons, Taylor Beard and Ash Weldon are now set for their next challenge – co-coaching Marong in the Loddon Valley league.
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The Panthers have announced the appointments of Beard and Weldon, who take over the coaching reins from Corbin Fleming.
Beard will be a playing coach and Weldon a non-playing coach for the Panthers.
READ MORE – Star forward Downie to co-coach Mitiamo in 2019
For Beard – who also coaches the Sandhurst Cricket Club – this will be his first senior football coaching role.
He has previously coached at junior level, including with the Picola United under-17s.
“I have a strong passion for coaching in general. It’s something I’ve been doing for a while now whether that be cricket or footy… it really makes me excited to see growth in players,” Beard said on Wednesday.
Beard, who expects to play across half-forward for the Panthers, is a dual senior premiership player with Picola United.
“I trained at Marong a bit last season and the club has a really good country feel about it,” Beard said.
“The opportunity to coach came up and it’s always been something I wanted to do at some stage at senior level and I’m really excited with the opportunity.”
Weldon has spent the past three years as an assistant coach at Picola United and played alongside Beard in the club’s 2017 grand final win over Strathmerton.
Beard and Weldon take over a Panthers’ team that won just three games in 2018 and finished eighth in what was a season where Jarrod Fitzpatrick won the best and fairest.
“We’ll be setting our expectations as high as we can next year, but we’ve also got to be realistic about the way we want to go about things,” Beard said.
“There is a really good buzz around the club at the moment and there’s good support. In any sport there’s always a challenge and Ash and I are really keen to take this on and see where we can get to.”
READ MORE – Loddon Valley league 2018 season review
Next season will mark 30 years since Marong won its last senior premiership in 1989.
Since then the only other senior grand final the Panthers have played in was in 2004 when they were beaten by Calivil United.
Meanwhile, the Panthers have also announced their netball coaching panel for 2019, which includes Linda Bickerdike coaching the A Grade team.
Like the senior footballers, the Panthers A Grade netball team is also coming off a three-win season in 2018.
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