Luke Kenna appointed South Rovers' football coach for 2024

The Lions, who announced their new mentor on Monday night, were on the hunt for a new coach since the resignation of Tim Condon 11 rounds into the 2023 Warrnambool and District league season.

The side finished seventh this year and has lost star veteran Trent Harman to Merrivale.

"My first goal is just to maintain the playing group and then hopefully try to add to it once I've done that," Kenna told The Standard.

Kenna, a Hampden league premiership player with Terang Mortlake, joins the Lions after five years as an assistant at the Bloods, who finished third this season under the guidance of his older brother Ben.

He is well-versed in the Warrnambool and District league, where he won two flags with Kolora-Noorat (2010-'11) as a playing-assistant and also coached Russells Creek in 2016.

The Brauer College teacher is looking forward to the challenge of head coaching again, saying he had a passion for developing players.

"I just thought I'd have another crack at it," he said.

Kenna acknowledged the WDFNL was "probably a bit more laid-back than the Hampden league" and said he wanted to encourage his players to enjoy football.

"At the end of the day footy's just about having fun so that's probably one of the key messages I want," he said.

The Lions won five games in 2022, five less than Allansford which finished one spot above them on the ladder.

Kenna isn't setting any goals until he finalises his list but said he'd like to think reaching five wins "would be the bar to start with".

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