Geelong Advertiser |
LUCAS Murphy has had a change of heart and will coach BFL club Anglesea next season.
Little more than a week after he shocked the club by deciding not to honour his 2014 commitment, Murphy informed the Roos over the weekend he wanted the top job back for next year.
Club officials met on Sunday morning and unanimously ratified the appointment. Murphy will be a non-playing coach.
"As a club we couldn't be happier,'' president David Cook said.
"He hinted to the players after the game on Saturday that he may be able to do it.
"He had some discussions over the night and the next morning the committee met and we announced it to the players yesterday, and they were over the moon about it.''
Upon his resignation earlier this month, Murphy said he was ``burnt out'' after three decades in the game and ``felt I needed a break away from footy''.
But Cook said Murphy never lost his the passion for the job and was ready to launch back into the cut and thrust of coaching after a change of work commitments.
Cook also said the club's playing group had committed for next season, adding the club had already spoken to more than a dozen prospective players.
When Murphy initially re-signed in June, he fired a warning shot at rivals Winchelsea and Grovedale, saying the Roos would not be bullied by poachers after his side lost more than a dozen key players in the off-season.
"I'm pretty bullish about the fact that I want to retain our players and I feel we've got a good young list,'' he said in June.
Murphy spent the majority of his playing career in the Eastern Football League in suburban Melbourne, winning his only senior premiership with South Croydon, before reaching the Division One preliminary final with Mitcham under former Hawthorn champion Andrew Collins.
He moved to the Geelong region when he was 31 and spent three years at Barwon Heads, before taking on the assistant coaching role at GDFL club East Geelong and then crossing back to the Bellarine league to coach Anglesea this season.
