THE Hamilton Kangaroos have locked in their coaches for the 2022 Hampden Football Netball League with a mix of experience and youthful assistant coaches among the group.

Emma and Kellie Sommerville will share the main open coaching duties, taking over from Nat O’Dea, but will also get assistance from assistant coach, Amanda Hicks, who will assist the playing co-coaches from the sidelines.

O’Dea will retain the Division 1 coaching role, while also picking up the 13-and-Under mentor role.

Kyra McInnes and Jess Crane will share the Division 2 responsibilities, while Hayley Ryan is the Division 3 coach, assisted by Belinda Carroll.

The 17-and-Under team remains under the eye of Rhianne Lewis, with Sharney Millard stepping into the assistant coach role, while Casey Rook will be assisted by Indi Ryan at the helm of the 15-and-Unders.

Tahlia Ross slots in alongside O’Dea as 13-and-Under assistant coach.

Kangaroos co-netball director, Bec Sherlock said to have the Sommerville sisters in the top role was exciting for the club.

“We are glad we could get the girls on board, I think they will bring a lot of knowledge to the club and lots of strategies and systems we can use on the court,” she said.

“They said because they are players, they wanted an assistant and so we have just announced Amanda Hicks as assistant coach.”

Emma told The Spectator that it was a decision the pair needed to work through and figure out how it would look before committing to the role.

“We are super excited, we were umming and ahhing about the position, obviously playing and coaching has its challenges but now we have Amanda on the side to help us,” she said.

“We definitely wanted to focus on our playing, but taking on the opportunity to coach was a bit of a no-brainer and we thought we’d step up and give it a crack.

“Finals is definitely a goal of ours, but also to lift the professionalism and expectations on the players, which was an important part of our decision.

“We are looking forward to the season coming, it has been good to get back into the Hampden league.”

The Sommerville pair are no strangers to playing and coaching together, having spend years at Glenthompson-Dunkeld and also having an involvement with Port Fairy prior to that.

Emma said there were some focus areas they singled out ahead of the 2023 campaign.

“We definitely have a lot of things we want to implement and change, nothing is set in stone in terms of playing groups though, it is a blank slate,” she said.

“Kel and I have very similar playing styles and similar expectations on the court, so we work together really well and we have the same ideas when it comes to strategies on the court.”

Sherlock was also hopeful of bringing a few new faces to the club, but said the focus would be on developing the club’s juniors and giving them opportunities in higher divisions during the season.

“We are trying to recruit a couple of players, but we are definitely focusing on building from within and giving juniors opportunities along the way,” she said.

“It is a really proactive coaching group and most of them have worked together before.”

With a strong group of applications for many of the roles, Sherlock said it was exciting for the club to give some of the younger players an opportunity to step into coaching without too much pressure.

“It has been a great process, we had lots of younger kids who wanted to be assistant coaches,” she said.

“Nearly every team has an assistant this year and we have some really experienced coaches alongside them to help develop them.

“It was kind of just luck that we had some young ones who wanted to get involved, we gave them roles and they were enthusiastic through the process, so it is exciting.

“We have got some great foundations and we will keep building on them next year, particularly focusing on the junior development.”

The Roos’ pre-season is scheduled to get underway on November 10 with junior trials set for next month, while senior trials will be in the new year.