Chris McLaren is a favourite son returning to the top job at his home club.

Michael Sargeant too has strong ties to the team he is now charged with leading.

These three – along with new North Warrnambool Eagles co-coach Rory Taggert – are the men who have stepped into the coaching hot seats over the summer.

They will bring their own approaches as they take on teams with varying aspirations in 2017.

Q: What is going to be the biggest challenge for you as a player and a coach?

A: Being a playing coach will be challenging at times I’m sure but I’ve got good support staff there, still got Wayne Robertson on the bench who’s been a really big help so far. He’s doing a lot of leg work while I’m busy training the boys. 

Q: With your first pre-season, what’s been your biggest challenge personally and the most exciting part about taking on the coaching role?

A: The most challenging thing so far is knowing how to develop the young fellas. Obviously I’ve got my own ideas but to get them to see your ways and see what you want, everyone is different, there’s different personalities. I guess that’s the challenge, trying to figure out how to coach the different personalities and individuals. The guys that have come onboard to my way of thinking and what I want, it’s really shown during training and the practice games so far and I’m really excited to see what they can put on the park on Saturdays. The guys that have taken onboard and are keen to learn are going to have really good seasons.

Q: How would you describe yourself? What are some of your philosophies and the approach you take into your football?

A: As a player I try to be as disciplined and professional as I can be and I’m hoping the boys will see that and try and take some of that onboard. Obviously with a young side, professionalism is something they haven’t developed, having played a handful of senior games and only junior footy at Hampden level. 

Q: You have a routine at half-time where you pace the boundary line. How will you approach that this year now you’ve got the coaching duties?

A: That will be a difficult one. I like to keep the legs ticking over and there’s not usually a lot of space in the change rooms, so a bit of time to myself was part of my routine but it’ll be interesting to see how time-consuming those half-time breaks are. I may have to change that up. 

Q: Having coached the club previously and now being back at the helm, what have you learned in that time off?

A: The main thing you learn when you do it the second time around is to delegate better. You try and do it yourself the first time around, so this time we’ve been able to spread the load a bit more. Obviously having Timmy McIntyre and Damian O’Connor as playing assistants, they take a lot of the pre-season, and our playing group is really experienced, so there’s lots of coaches within the side out there that can really spread the workload.

Q: Adam Dowie’s had three successful years at the club. Do you feel added pressure given the Saints have been on a high?

A: You want to maintain those standards, but as we know it’s awfully hard to make grand finals and they’re awfully hard to win. Clearly our aim is to do that. I think the playing group are experienced enough now that we know what we’ve got to do to give ourselves a chance to go as deep as we can. Adam will be around giving us a hand when he can too. I think he’s set the group up over the last four years well enough – they can be on auto-pilot at time too.

Q: How do you think your time in the TAC Cup has helped you out?

A: It keeps your foot in the door I suppose. I think if you said the last four years that you hadn’t done any coaching or been involved with any footy stuff specifically, you’d probably lose a bit of touch, it changes so quick, so to be able to keep your foot in the door and keep getting new drills, new theories all the time has probably been the big advantage. 

Q: What about yourself playing-wise? Have you made a decision about what’s going to happen there?

A: I am still a little bit undecided, to be honest. I’ve been training but coaching is the number one priority, so we’ll get that sorted out first in the early rounds and if that’s going well and the off-field stuff is well then I might think about playing. 

Q: You’ve stepped back into a coaching role this year and it’s the first time at your home club Terang Mortlake. What are you looking forward most about that?

A: Having a look at some of our younger players who have played 30 or 40 games really developing into a good Hampden league player now. We have a good affiliation now with the Mortlake Junior Sharks jumping on board, so hopefully in the next three to four years we’ll really start reaping the rewards of that as well.

Q: You’ve come back to the club and you’ve played a lot of footy here. What does it mean personally to coach the club?

A: Coaching’s been a bit of a passion in the past and then I had a bit of time off. Now I am not playing anymore, I’ve gone and got the bug back again, and to be able to coach your home club that’s pretty special. Not a lot of people get to do that, so I am pretty lucky in that sense. I don’t really feel any added extra pressure. Terang Mortlake has been a big part of my life but with such a young group, I think there’s no real pressure on us.

Q: You coached in the District league for two years at Old Collegians. What did you learn from that experience?

A: We got a bit of the best of both worlds there – we had a successful year and the next year I felt we really developed a team and developed some young blokes and maybe they’re (the Warriors) are starting to see the rewards of that.