Macedon ruckman Tom Waters will coach the Cats senior side this week against Lancefield.
Cats’ coach Jeff Andrews approached Waters a couple of weeks ago for him to take over the coaching reigns for a week at the Riddell District Football League club and he jumped at the chance.
Waters, in his second year at the Cats, was appointed as a playing assistant coach at the start of the year, with one eye on the future.
“We sat down at the start of the season and Jeff asked me what I wanted to get out of my football and coaching,” Waters said.
“My playing days are getting closer to the end than they are to the start and coaching is something more I want to do when my body has had enough.
“I’m quite happy with the opportunity to learn this season as an assistant coach.”
Waters will do everything from training, match day coaching and doing reviews with players this week. Andrews will step back to assistant coach role.
Waters’ first job was taking training on Tuesday night.
“I spoke with Jeff first and we went through a few things to work on from last week,” he said.
“Jeff normally puts together the videos to review, so this week I was involved in that, to see if I could see some different things.
“I normally run a couple of drills at training anyway. I did a few different drills that we hadn’t done before the boys before and they seemed to like it.
“It freshens things up at a time things can be the same. I’ll see what I can learn from taking on the role.”
It’s not Waters first foray into coaching, he coached Lancefield’s under-18s team the last year he played at the Tigers.
He also helped out as an assistant coach at Gisborne one year when he was out injured.
Waters said it was a little funny coaching against a side he spent a big chunk of his playing career.
“A lot of the boys who are playing now were juniors when I was at the club,” he said.
“I still live in Lancefield and people keep asking when I’m coming back to the club.”
Macedon isn’t the first RDFL club this season to have a coach take a step back and let an assistant coach take charge.
Shane Bishop coached Diggers Rest’s win against Wallan last weekend. Bishop also coached the Burras for a game last season.
