Drysdale champion takes coaching reins for 2019
DRYSDALE expects to finalise its coaching panel by the end of the week after appointing decorated midfielder Daniel Jull as a senior co-coach for the next two years.
Hawks president Greg Collier said yesterday the club was close to announcing a cocoach to work alongside Jull, who replaces Wade Chapman.
Chapman stood down at the end of the season, with Drys- dale finishing in eighth spot with five wins.
“Daniel Jull has been appointed as co-coach, but we’re not in a position to announce his partner just yet,” Collier said.
“He’s a two-time best and fairest, a Drysdale junior and a great footballer and we’ve really seen him step up in terms of his outward leadership over the last four or five weeks. That’s what we asked him to do and he responded really well and I think the players will be super excited.”
Chapman, who stood down after three seasons, had recommended Jull to the board.
“He’s been a strong supporter of Daniel,” Collier said.
“‘Chappy’ said he (Jull) would be a good coach and we took Wade’s advice on that. His advice holds a bit of sway, but it was never a fait accompli.
“We just wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing for the club. We’ve got some big aspirations around our young list and we wanted to make sure that Daniel’s head was in the right spot and that Daniel wanted to do the job.”
A 2009 premiership player, Jull expressed interest when Chapman said he would not seek a contract extension. Jull signed for two years. “We said to him, ‘come back to us with a proposal on how you want it to work, what you want to achieve and why you want the job’, and he did that,” Collier said.
“It's been ebbing and flowing and he’s had a few meetings with myself and the football director (Troy Hard- ing) over the last couple of weeks.
“We’ve had other applicants as well and we wanted to make sure that we made the right decision for the club.”
Jull’s right-hand man could be unveiled within days, but Collier said Josh Eddy would not be taking the role.
“There’s a couple of meetings taking place this week. I haven’t got a firm date, but hopefully we’ll have an announcement at the end of the week or even early next week,” he said.