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READ MORE - Angus Monfries sticks by battling Magpies
CASTLEMAINE has taken step one in what it hopes will translate to a more competitive 2020 with the appointment of Angus Monfries as its new senior coach.
Monfries joined the Magpies this year as a player in what was a major coup, with the club this week announcing he will take over as senior coach for 2020.
"Angus has been fantastic for us as not just a player, but his impact at the club across all the players and his willingness to engage the junior program and community made it a bit of a no-brainer for us in terms of his appointment," Matt Scully, the Magpies football operations manager this year, said on Wednesday.
"It's a terrific fillip for the club, no doubt.
"Given our performance on the field this year, people may be wondering why Angus would be interested in committing to a role like this. But he's across what is going on off the field, is fully engaged and has brought into the whole program.
"I'm really confident that he, Shawn (Filo) and Derrick (Filo) will be able to deliver us much better outcomes in the coming years."
The Magpies have won just one game in the past two years - a 23-point victory over Maryborough in round one, 2018.
The Magpies were co-coached this year by brothers Derrick and Shawn Filo.
Shawn will still remain heavily involved in the coaching as an assistant to Monfries, while Derrick will move into an operations-type role.
Monfries - who played 211 AFL games for Essendon and Port Adelaide between 2005 and 2017 - led the Magpies' goalkicking this year with 29.
As well as playing forward, Monfries also spent plenty of time in defence, helping out the under-siege Castlemaine backline.
The 32-year-old finished runner-up in the Magpies' best and fairest to Matt Filo.
"Angus brings a whole different level of thinking and execution to the club, which is really required," Scully said.
"Angus will be setting his aspirations as high as possible and everyone at the club will be looking to support him the best way we can, but having said that, nobody is marginalising the size of the task ahead either.
"But we're doing all the things you'd expect the club to be doing to try to get things right in terms of retaining players and talking to recruits.
"We probably announced Angus a little bit late (February) when we signed him to really leverage that for 2019, but this time it's obviously much earlier."
At this stage the Magpies' coaching panel features Monfries, Shawn Filo and midfielder Mitch Hough, whose 2019 season was ruined by a foot injury.
"What we needed to strengthen up first was our coaching panel, which we've been able to do," Scully said.
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