Vance has been with the Bushpigs for two seasons and will step up to the role vacated by Jack Egan.

CSU coach Daniel Athanitis is looking forward to working closely with Vance.

“He’s doing teaching at uni so he’s a good communicator,” Athanitis said.

“He’s also a good footballer in his own right, so we’re very happy.”

Vance hails from Finley and represented Farrer League in their inter-league fixture last year.

He was also runner up in the club’s best and fairest last year.

Egan, who was assistant coach for the past two seasons, is in his final year of degree and will spend most of the time on placement.

CSU have been extremely quiet over the off-season to date, but rely on most of their recruitment through new university students.

Athanitis said the club will know more in coming weeks.

“The kids are still getting their offers,” he said.

“We’re not sure where we’re at exactly with inclusions but we’ve been able to keep our losses to a minimum, which is good. And we won’t know until mid Feb what uni boys are coming through.”

That will not stop the Bushpigs, who will begin training next week.

“We start training next week with the Wagga boys, we’ve still got about 15 that live locally,” Athanitis said.

The university students will join in training at the end of February. While that is much later than opposition clubs, Athanitis is not overly concerned.

CSU have the opening round bye that, due to Easter, gives them an extra couple of weeks to prepare for their first games.

“Our first game isn’t until April 23 so it’s not too bad,” he said.

“I’ve made it pretty clear to them that they need to be training at their home footy clubs, which they do, so it works out alright.”

The Bushpigs also named Matt Knox and Paul Anderson as reserve grade coaches, with Mitch Lang assistant.