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GWS Giants development coach Damian Truslove is taking over as head coach of the Bendigo Pioneers.
The Pioneers confirmed the appointment of Truslove as their new coach on Thursday.
Truslove is the eighth coach in the Pioneers' history and takes over from Rick Coburn, who has moved on to the role of the AFL's state coaching manager.
Truslove has spent the past three seasons as the development coach at the Giants, while he has also previously worked in development roles with Carlton and Richmond's VFL programs.
And he takes on the role with a familiarity of the region having previously played in the Bendigo league with Maryborough.
"It has been a bit of a whirlwind... having been with the Giants it has been a big past month, but the opportunity to coach my own team and run a talent pathway program is really exciting," Truslove said.
"I played a couple of years with Maryborough back in the 2000s, so I know the Bendigo region quite well and I had a lot of friends from the area while I was at Assumption College.
"I know it's a big area the Pioneers cover, which has its challenges, so I'm looking forward to trying to bring it all together."
As well as his development roles, the highly-regarded Truslove has previously coached West Brunswick's senior side for two years, as well as the Point Cook under-18s for two seasons.
The opportunity to coach my own team and run a talent pathway program is really exciting
- Damian Truslove - newly-appointed coach of the Bendigo Pioneers
Truslove joins Tony Southcombe (1993), Brian Walsh (1994-99), Rod Macpherson (2000-04), Mark Ellis (2005-10), David Newett (2011-14), Brett Henderson (2015-16) and Coburn (2017-19) on the Pioneers' coaching list.
"We're delighted to welcome Damian to the club. He comes highly regarded with a great deal of experience in development and coaching roles," Pioneers talent manager Steve Sharp said.
"We think an appointment straight out of the AFL system from the Giants will be of great benefit to our program.
"Damian has looked after the year one to four players with the Giants, many of whom were part of a grand final team last weekend."
Truslove will begin with the Pioneers on October 21.
Meanwhile, Truslove described his feeling as "numb" in the wake of the Giants' 89-point grand final loss to Richmond last Saturday.
"It's certainly been a bit challenging over the past few days looking back at the opportunity we let slip, which was really disappointing," Truslove said.
"But by the same token we won three finals that we probably weren't expected to, so there were some highs there, but a big low at the end of it.
"My role at the Giants has been to predominantly upskill the first to four-year players and I was so proud to see a lot of them out there on the big stage... it would have been nice to see them go one more step, but we were just a bit fatigued in the end.
"The opportunity to be involved with the Giants over the past three years has been a fantastic experience."
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