Former player Shane Smith will take on the men's team while Warrnambool coaching legend Lee Primmer has signed-on to mentor the Mermaids.

Smith, a successful junior coach, is looking forward to his first time as head coach.

"I'm feel fairly confident, I've been around the club for a long time," he said.

"So very excited to take on the position."

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Smith, who takes the reins from Tim Gainey, wants to build on the work of his predecessors.

"Over a long period of time, people have contributed and built our program up to be really successful so hopefully I can take it a step further," he said.

Smith is hoping to give some of Warrnambool's junior players an opportunity at the top level alongside the likes of star Xavier Johnson-Blount.

"It would be great, that would be my aim, if we can give them opportunities and get them to stay at our club a little bit longer it would be fantastic," he said.

Primmer used to coach Smith when he was a Seahawk and he was also the Mermaids coach for the 2009 season.

He said the Mermaids' outgoing coach Louise Brown had sparked the idea to mentor the team again.

"I've worked with a couple of the young girls that are in the Mermaids team and they do have a good bunch of young girls coming through," he said.

Primmer said he was also excited to work with familiar faces including Brown, Katie O'Keefe and Nicole Gynes.

He said it was important for the Mermaids to consider long-term goals.

"I think the Mermaids do have to look for the next three to four years and we've got to have players come and step up and fill those roles," he said.

"Katie O'Keefe and Louise (Brown) have been the stalwarts of the Mermaids for quite a few years and Amy Wormald is obviously another one.

"So we've got a couple of very nice young girls there who need to polish up their skills a bit and I think they could be the franchise players for the years to come."

Seahawks and Mermaids chairman Jacob Sobey thanked Brown and Gainey for their hard work.

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