Centrals’ coaching to be split two ways

WERRIBEE Centrals is set to fast track its coaching succession plan, with Nick Smith and Rhyce Prismall agreeing to remain with the club next season.

Prismall, who was initially earmarked to take over from Smith at the end of the 2020 season, will now lead the Centurions’ into the next pre-season.

Smith revealed he would allow Prismall to take charge of the playing group, while he oversaw the operation from afar.

In agreeing to a one-year contract extension, Smith will then share match day coaching duties with Prismall in 2021 before standing aside.

“I’m working on Prisa having a much more handson role because the one thing we have done together is a pre-season,” Smith (right) said.

“I went to him and said ‘ Would you be keen to take more of a lead in the pre-season?’ because that was the part I couldn’t cope with.

“It’s the part that I least enjoy about coaching. I like the challenge of game day coaching and the competitive element of coaching way more than the preparation.

“So once Prisa said he was happy to take more of the lead of pre-season, then I said ‘Let’s do it’.

“I told the committee that I look forward to investing more into coaching him and his practices so I can feel more comfortable in him, regardless of the result at the end of the year.

“He’s a cracking guy and he loves footy, so I’m fortunate that the club is letting me do that.”

Prismall, who joined Centrals in the off-season, was set to learn the ropes from Smith in 2020 before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the GDFL season.

Now the talented playing coach will take more of a lead role with the preliminary finalists.

“We had a chat and I asked ‘Are you ready to take over by yourself?’,” Smith said.

“He said to me ‘I’ll start straight away’. In his words, he said we might start doing some Saturday morning sessions once the weather clears up, but that was before we went into lockdown again and now footy is on the backburner again.

“It had sucked the life out of me, this year, but I met with Prisa and I decided to go on again. Our hashtag this year was ‘unfinished business’ and I went into this season knowing it would be my last season and hoping we could take those extra couple of steps and hopefully hand over the reigns to Prisa.”