Grae’s stay extended into 2018

GOLD Coast City has confirmed Grae Piddick will return as the club’s men’s head coach for the 2018 season.

The reappointment for a fourth season makes him the longest-serving coach in NPL Queensland and only coach in the competition remaining with the same club from the competition’s first season.

Piddick is also the most successful coach in NPL Queensland’s five seasons, boasting an impressive 62 wins in the competition from 107 matches, and reaching the competition’s semi-finals three times.

He also the only coach to guide a Queensland club to the quarter-final stage of the FFA Cup, a feat he notched for the second time in 2017.

In 2014, Piddick guided Gold Coast (then known as Palm Beach) to the NPL premiers-champions double.

In 2018, Piddick will also take an overseeing role in the under-16, 18 and 20s teams.

The results of those teams will be combined with the men’s side in the proposed promotion-relegation system outlined, but yet to be confirmed, by Football Queensland.

Piddick said he was also looking forward to the longer NPL season which includes Gold Coast United, Brisbane’s Lions FC and Mackay-based Magpies Crusaders United.