New East Sunbury coach Dave Morrice knows he has a task ahead of him at the Essendon District Football League division 2 club.
The Thunder announced that Morrice would step up as coach replacing Travis Bishop, who has had to step back due to other commitments.
Morrice was an assistant coach this season.
“I’m up for the challenge,” the new coach said. “It was something that sort of came about and it’s something I jumped on.
“I’ve always wanted to be a head coach. I’ve been able to build a relationship with the playing group and the coaches.”
Bishop will remain at the club in a senior assistant role.
Morrice said it was a massive bonus for him to still have Bishop as part of the coaching team.
“He’s done a mountain of work,” he said. “Him staying on frees me up a bit to do other things.
“I’ll look to put a couple of other assistant coaches in place as well.”
Morrice said he would be a playing coach while his body still allowed him to play.
He said he knows he has a mountain of work ahead of him. The Thunder is yet to win a match since coming back into the competition last year.
“I think I’m up for the challenge,” he said. “We want to develop the current playing list.
“We had a young inexperienced list and we want to blend in some more experience.
“They’ve had a taste of senior footy… Travis settled the club and hopefully there’s a fair bit of talent with what we already have.
“Hopefully we can be successful on the field.”
Morrice, who has played almost 250 games at Rupertswood, Macedon and Diggers Rest before coming to the Thunder, said he would look to some of his contacts to recruit some players.
He said was yet to do that with him only just taking on the coaching role.
“I want to try and sign up the current players to start things,” he said. “We’ve signed a handful of them and are looking to sign most of them in the coming weeks.
“I should be able to bring some talent in”
