Brisbane Strikers fan favourite Chay Hews will take the reigns as senior head coach at Perry Park next season, after David Large stepped down from the job to focus on his role as club technical director.

Large, who took over from Stuart McLaren midway through the 2010 season and led Strikers to a QSL premiership and four finals campaigns, said the time had come to step back from the head coaching role.

“As a club we needed to look at what our options are and where we go from here”, said Large after the senior team’s injury-dogged 2013 campaign ended one game short of the NPL Queensland Grand Final.

“I have no intention of leaving the club, but it has been a tough year in terms of my workload and I think it might be time for a new coach to come in with his own ideas and let us move on”.

Large will continue as the club’s technical director, a position that Large said required his full attention.

“As a club we thought it was worth a go having me in both roles this year, while we assessed how our NPL operations affected the club in the first year of the new competition” Large said.

“But what we’ve found is that the combined role is just too big for one coach. I couldn’t really do justice to both and the technical director role was probably the one that suffered the most.

“It is vitally important to get the technical director role right if the club is to do justice to the NPL concept. We need to make sure we are giving proper attention not only to our own young players and their coaches, but also adding decent value to what the partner clubs in our NPL catchment area are doing for their young players”.

“I’ve always been passionately committed to developing young players so, while I obviously have mixed feelings about giving the head coach job away, I am looking forward to being a better TD”.

New coach, Hews, is the club’s most experienced footballer and one of its most iconic figures after playing 217 games for the first team.

The tireless midfielder was first announced as a future Strikers coach in 2010, coinciding with Large’s appointment. Hews served as assistant to Large throughout the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons.

Hews said he was “excited, scared and nervous” about taking over as Senior Coach but looking forward to the challenge.

“I can’t wait to get started”, Hews said. “There’s a lot to do – a lot of planning that needs to be done. It’s going to be a busy two months ahead, but I look forward to it and I’m glad I’ve got Largie there in the background.

“I can always ask him for help, which I will be doing on numerous occasions, I can imagine”, Hews confided.

Hews ruled out the option of taking a dual player-coach role, meaning the end of a playing career that saw the QAS graduate play in Sweden, England, Japan and in the National Soccer League with Strikers.

“I think that to take on the coaching role with as little experience as I have, I’d want to give it a hundred percent”, Hews said. “And to be able to concentrate on that and do it properly – I think trying to play at the same time, in my opinion, probably is not the best way to go about it.

“That was my decision totally. I do feel that I am going to miss playing, but at the same time I do want to be able to concentrate one hundred per cent on the coaching side of it and that’s what I am going to do”.

Strikers will await the decision of this year’s Assistant Coach, Graham Harvey, who has been asked to stay on in the role.

Hews said he had an enormous respect for Harvey’s knowledge  and passion for the game, and hopes he continues in the role next year.

 

Words: Steve Pitman (Brisbane Strikers)
Image: Keith Eigeland