Brierly-Christ Church signs club stalwart Rodney Roberts as senior coach for season 2023-24

The highly-regarded Bulls stalwart has signed on as coach, replacing Lachi Rooke in the role, just days after the announcement former premiership player Campbell Love will captain the division one team.

Alongside Love, the Bulls have also landed all-rounders Sahan Bamunuarchichi and Moody Mamaikkuwa Wadu to bolster the division one list.

Champion player Mark Murphy is expected to play on at this stage.

Roberts, a former president of the club who has been actively involved in junior coaching both with the Bulls and with the association, said he was excited to land the role and help develop the list.

He admitted it wasn't always the plan to enter the senior coaching ranks so soon.

"It probably wasn't something I originally thought I'd do this year at all, maybe in a couple of years but it's brought things forward I guess," he said.

"I was planning on maybe finishing up playing cricket and then looking at it (coaching).

"I'm excited though to give it a go. We've always had a really good junior program at Brierly and had a young (division one) side last year, but we were probably missing that middle-aged tier.

"We've recruited a couple in that bracket which is good and I guess the feeling is we've covered all age groups now in terms of our senior side and more specifically in our division one team."

The Warrnambool-based real estate agent said he was looking to help develop the juniors and use his experience to his advantage as well instil a culture of fun and unity.

"I coached senior cricket in the old Grassmere league but that was a long time ago and played division one with Dennington and won some premierships in the early 2000s so I've been around a while I guess," he said.

"For me it'll just be about topping off what Lachi Rooke did last year, we've got a few recruits with experience but we'll look to have a lot of fun at the club and making sure we're blooding these juniors and working closely with them."

He added the division one team would be quite youthful this season.

"They got a fair go last year too so we'll keep working with our young players, getting them up to div one standard," he said.

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