Towering full-forward Daniel Muir will coach Leeton-Whitton next season.
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Muir was announced as the Crows’ senior coach for 2019 at Leeton-Whitton training on Tuesday night after Jade Hodge informed the group of his intentions to stand down at season’s end.
Hodge has decided to step aside after he finishes his third year in charge of the Crows.
Muir, currently an assistant coach, jumped at the opportunity to take the reins.
“I’m excited, a bit nervous but as well,” Muir said.
“With the current group we have and all the exciting kids it was a no brainer, really.
“Obviously the club had a talk about who they wanted to do it and when they offered it to me, I jumped at it, to be honest.”
Muir, 30, arrived at Leeton-Whitton last season and played a significant role in the club’s drought-breaking premiership victory.
He has quickly established himself as one of the premier key forwards in the competition with 76 goals from 26 games.
Leeton-Whitton football operations manager David Meline said Muir was the logical choice to replace Hodge.
“Daniel came to the club as assistant coach with intentions down the track, not necessarily at Leeton, to coach one day if the opportunity came up,” Meline said.
“Once Jade decided that he didn’t want to coach again we started to look at what our options were and we believe we have a really good candidate right under our nose. We approached him and one thing led to another.
“Daniel has fit in really, really well since he arrived. He’s a quality person and that’s part of it.
“We’re not writing this year off by any means but it’s nice to get a coached locked away this early.”
Muir has always had ambitions to become a senior coach and spent time assisting and coaching underage teams when with Glenorchy in Tasmania.
He said the club’s sole focus now was to finish 2018 strongly.
“Our sole objective at the moment is this year,” Muir said.
“There’s no reason to write this year off and first and foremost we’ll worry about doing our best this season.”
Muir does however believe the future looks bright.
“The first job will be getting in contact with the list we have,” he said.
“The young kids we’ve got coming through were thrown to the wolves a bit at the start of the year but have shown a lot.
“They’ll have a season into them...five or six of them will go into next year with close to 20 games under their belt so they will be a lot better for this year.”
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