TWO-TIME Panmure premiership coach Simon O’Keefe is returning to where it all started, signing on as an assistant at Koroit for the 2015 Hampden league season.
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O’Keefe, 32, will work alongside Saints mastermind Adam Dowie, a five-time premiership mentor who guided the club to a stunning upset flag against Warrnambool last month.
O’Keefe said it was the right time to return to Koroit after three grand finals in three seasons with Warrnambool and District league club Panmure.
He will slot into Koroit’s midfield-forward rotations next season after last playing for the Saints in his 2011 Maskell Medal-winning campaign.
Highly-regarded junior mentor Ben van de Camp has also joined the Saints as under 18½ coach.
Van de Camp coached Old Collegians to an under 17½ premiership in 2013 and led Warrnambool and District’s junior squad at interleague level this year.
Dowie said the signings were major coups for the club.
“I am over the moon to be honest. I think it’s fantastic for the footy club,” he said.
Dowie said the Saints were thrilled to land O’Keefe, whose ability to develop junior players stood out during his time at the Bulldogs.
“His record speaks for itself at Panmure and I am really looking forward to working with him,” he said.
“With three years at Panmure I am sure he would have learnt a lot about the coaching game.
“We have no doubt he will give us an injection of new ideas, new voice and new structures to our side.
“My job is to make sure we continue to develop his coaching philosophies and coaching methods.
“I hope a good thing about the way I operate is I am happy to delegate.
“Simon will get plenty of opportunities to implement skills, tactics and strategies.”
O’Keefe, who won the first of his two Maskell Medals in 2007, said he was excited to don the Saints’ guernsey again. He said it was a “tough decision but the right one” to leave Panmure and return to his home club.
“I live in Koroit, I’m a Koroit boy and played all my junior footy with Koroit,” O’Keefe said.
“I definitely enjoyed my three years at Panmure, especially cutting my teeth as a coach with them guys. I will be forever indebted to them for giving me an opportunity.
“I think I put a fair bit of time into the young ones out there and as a playing coach tried to lead from the front and always tried to make training enjoyable.”
O’Keefe said he enjoyed coaching and would soak up as much as he could from the Saints’ experienced mentors and leaders.
“After three years of coaching the opportunity to come back as an assistant coach did look a little attractive, to take a backwards step and concentrate on my own footy personally and the other sides of coaching,” he said.
Stints at WAFL club South Fremantle, QAFL club Labrador and NTFL club Waratahs have punctuated O’Keefe’s south-west playing career.
He said he felt fit and was capable of playing a role for the Saints, who also boast 2014 Maskell Medal-winning midfielder Isaac Templeton, next season.
“I’d be happy to play to 35 and I think I will be playing reasonable footy,” O’Keefe said.