Life members, former teammates and neighbours Anthony ‘Norm’ Vogels and Mathew Whitehead will share the Warrnambool and District league club’s senior coaching duties in 2015 as they look to develop the Demons’ emerging talent.

Vogels, 39, will coach from the sidelines while Whitehead, 32, who played three senior games with Hampden league club Cobden this year where he was reserves mentor, will be a playing coach.

Club president Dennis Rosolin announced the pair’s partnership, saying the Demons were in good hands.

“We are in a position where we have to build and it’s more beneficial to have two people who are red and blue and have the club at heart,” he said.

“We are in a rebuilding phase. We have to keep building on what we did last year.

“They have nothing left to prove at the club. If we can get people to follow their example, that will be great. There are over 500 games of football between the two.”

Vogels is a league life member and holds the distinction of having played in three premierships with the same club in three different competitions.

“I helped out on the bench this year and when the opportunity came up, we both have young families and to do it on your own, it would have been too much,” Vogels said.

“If we could share it, it was a good opportunity.”

Both Vogels and Whitehead were part of the Demons’ first season in the Warrnambool and District league in 2003. 

Vogels said he was excited about his role, especially because the club’s players had already initiated training before their appointment was made official on Thursday night.

“We want them to build their own enthusiasm and not run a dictatorship,” Vogels said.

“We have to work with the players and the young players and try and make it a fun place to be. 

“We will take it seriously but it needs to be fun.”

He said the Demons had retained this year’s playing list and were talking to potential recruits. 

But he and Whitehead are committed to developing the Demons teenagers. 

Six graduate from under 17½ football to senior ranks.

Whitehead said both he and Vogels were dairy farmers, with their properties backing on to each other. 

He agreed that would ensure easy communication between the pair away from the football oval.

Whitehead, who started his career at Heytesbury before going to Cobden for two years of senior football in 2001 and 2002, returned to the club, born out of a merger between Heytesbury and Timboon for the Demons’ first WDFNL season in 2003. 

The utility played there until he accepted Cobden’s reserves coaching role this season.

“I just want to be a leader and give a bit of guidance,” Whitehead said.

He is likely to line up across half-back.

His experiences on-field are something Vogels believes will be critical in their partnership, bringing a different perspective to those on the bench.

grbest@fairfaxmedia.com.au