Former Richmond AFL captain Chris Newman will embark on his first senior coaching role when he takes over from Marco Bello at the Box Hill Hawks in 2017.
34-year-old Newman retired from the AFL at the end of 2015 after 268 games for the Tigers and a stint as the club’s skipper from 2009-12. He was appointed as a development coach at Hawthorn in October last year and was announced as the new senior coach at the club’s Peter Jackson VFL affiliate just 12 months later.
Bello has been appointed Hawthorn’s new Head of Development Academy after three seasons in charge at Box Hill. He took over the coaching role from Damian Carroll following the club’s 2013 premiership season and guided the Hawks to VFL Grand Finals in 2014 and 2015 before they dropped outside the top eight for the first time since 2008 this year (10th position).
Bello finishes his time as senior coach with an overall win-loss-draw record of 38-21-1. He also coached the Hawks to a Development League premiership in 2011 and the Development League Grand Final in 2012.
Newman spent this year rapidly learning what he could off Bello before being approached by Hawthorn’s then general manager of football operations Chris Fagan and senior coach Alastair Clarkson to take on the VFL coaching role.
“I was very keen to go on this coaching pathway and the development coaching role was just a great stepping stone for me – to be able to be a fly on the wall and observe how both Box Hill and Hawthorn go about things,” Newman said.
“I was involved on game day a little bit at Box Hill but not assigned to a line specifically. I was working under (Hawthorn defence coach) Adem Yze looking after the back six at Box Hill but not as an assistant. I’d do the reviews with those guys and go through some goal-setting.
“It was also great to see how hard Marco works in his position. It’s quite a taxing role and he puts a lot of time and effort into it. Hopefully I mirror Marco in being really approachable for the players and staff at Box Hill and at Hawthorn, and try to be really relationship-based as Marco was.”
While still playing at Richmond, Newman worked with current Casey Scorpions senior coach Justin Plapp when he held the reins at the TAC Cup’s Sandringham Dragons and also sat in the coaches box with former Richmond VFL senior coach Tim Clarke at times.
But with relatively limited coaching experience, Newman said the Hawks had taken “a pretty big leap of faith” in appointing him as senior coach.
“I guess it’s a bit of the unknown; I’m really excited to see what sort of coach I’ll become,” Newman said. “Ideally I’d like to be a cool, calm and collected sort of coach, but I know realistically that’s probably not going to happen. There are going to be times when it’s quite stressful and I’ll be pulling my hair out and riding the emotional rollercoaster. I guess that’s to be unlocked at this stage.
“The one thing I love and admire in players is their willingness to compete, so that’ll be a big theme going through this pre-season. We’re pretty lucky to still have such a talented group. The success last year that the Development League team had was mind-blowing, really – to have won that grand final (against the Casey Scorpions) by over 100 points.
“It was great for our football club because there’s a lot of young talent there and it’s going to be really difficult to give those guys the opportunity they deserve throughout the year, but I’ll try to reward that as much as possible.”
Last Modified on 21/10/2016 16:50