Weekly Times | TWO-TIME reigning Sunraysia league premier Red Cliffs today announced it has appointed former AFL footballer Nick Stevens as its senior coach.
The Tigers’ statement said the club was “extremely excited to have Nick on board and are looking forward to him bringing his skills and knowledge to the club for both senior and junior club development”.
Stevens played 231 AFL games between 1998 and 2009 — 127 for Port Adelaide and 104 for Carlton.
He was earlier this year found guilty of 12 charges, including making threats to kill and assault, relating to a former partner. He was later sentenced to eight months jail but launched an appeal.
Those proceedings are currently ongoing. Stevens was found not guilty of a number of other charges.
Stevens was previously the coach of TAC Cup side Gippsland Power and SANFL club Glenelg, but was sacked by the latter after he was found guilty.
Stevens said he had spoken to “a few” clubs over the past three or four months about coaching, but had not decided if he was going to get back into it.
The prospect of taking on a two-time reigning premier “weighed on his mind”, but he was won over by Red Cliffs’ professionalism.
“I was really impressed with how the guys presented and what they’re trying to do off the field and that was why I really liked the idea of going there and building the off-field side of things,” he said.
He said he had not put pen to paper because he was not “face to face with them”, but it would happen on Monday and the deal was “all done”.
He also expected to meet the bulk of the playing group for the first time next week.
Stevens planned to move to the Mildura area and continue his landscaping business and said there were no implications for his bail conditions.
The announcement comes the day after White Ribbon Day, a national day to stop men’s violence against women.
Stevens said he was not aware it was White Ribbon Day until yesterday and said it was “unfortunate for people who go through that” but could not comment in relation to his own case.
He said he and the club had spoken about the possible outcomes with his appeal yet to be heard.
“We’ve spoken about it all and we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it. The club’s been very supportive of me and I think it’s fantastic that they’re a club that don’t judge something based on media facts and a courtroom when you’re still in the middle of a court case.”