Retired premiership players Steve Johnson and Tadhg Kennelly are joining the Sydney Swans coaching ranks, joining Jeremy Laidler.
The rumour mill has been in overdrive for almost two months with the Swans' capture of Steve Johnson, reported here 6 weeks ago.
Johnson, a triple premiership player, three time All Australian and 2007 Normsmith medalist, will be taking the reigns as the new forwards coach.
Bringing invaluable experience to the Swans, following his illustrious playing career for the Cats and Giants, he's a massive coup for the club following the departure of Henry Playfair.
Sydney Swans Head of Football Tom Harley was chuffed with the capture of his great mate.
“Steve brings an impressive playing record and is widely acknowledged as having elite football IQ,” Harley said.
“Towards the end of his playing days, Steve invested in his coaching career and as such we are very confident that he will transition to become a quality coach.
“Steve and his family are settled in Sydney and we are excited about welcoming them to the Swans.”
Joining Johnson is 2005 Sydney Swans premiership player, the Swans' favourite Irish son, Tadhg Kennelly.
The Irishman returns to the club where he played 197 AFL games, following coaching and development roles with the AFL since 2011.
Kennelly will join retiring Swan Jeremy Laidler as a development coach, while Nick Davis will take up the role of Talent and Development manager for the QBE Sydney Swans Academy.
The 2017 AFL Coaches Association's Assistant Coach of the Year, Rhyce Shaw, has been promoted to an assistant coaching position.
Harley said the club is excited with their new coaching group ahead of season 2018.
“We are looking forward to the start of the pre-season with a new-look coaching group,” Harley said.
“Steve Johnson and Tadhg Kennelly will bring new ideas and a fresh perspective whilst Rhyce Shaw’s promotion from NEAFL coach to the senior coaching panel highlights how highly we regard him.
“We continually look at ways to improve and innovate and our 2018 coaching panel led by John Longmire provides us an opportunity to do so.”
Like what you’re getting? Want more Swans Blog, and the chance to have your input into our site and what we create? We have additional content weekly on our Patreon Service. This is your avenue, what are you waiting for? Sign up today and get more content like this.
If you'd like to support us, you can head over to our Red Bubble Swans Blog Shop, and purchase one of our hideously overpriced mugs, stickers or notebooks. Help keep The Swans Blog alive.
Since you're here...
... we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading The Swans Blog than ever, but we don't accept advertising, and don't want to do so in the future. Unlike many other news and media organisations, fan forums and fan media, we haven't put up a paywall, or displayed ads - we want to keep our content as open as possible.
The Swans Blog is an independent fan blog and community platform. Our content takes a lot of time and hard work to produce. We do it because we love what we do and we believe our perspective matters - because it may be your perspective too.
If everyone who reads our blog, who likes it, is supporting it, our future would be much more secure.
Want instant access to the latest blog and news content from The Swans Blog?
Download our Android App from Google Play today.