Carroll has informed the Bulldogs he will not take on the coaching job for a second season despite enjoying positive results with the young group in his first year in charge.

Carroll has Turvey Park in sixth position and in the hunt for a return to finals with only percentage separating the Bulldogs and fifth-placed Leeton-Whitton.

The 32-year-old has enjoyed his first coaching gig but revealed injury has put a line through plans for a second year in the top job at Maher Oval.

“I told the club straight away, it was a pretty hard decision but one I had to make in the best interests of the club and put them first,” Carroll said.

“I see this side as being better next year and the year after that. It was never a one-season plan and I wanted to try to be there for three years but unfortunately with my body, I can’t train or do anything really.

“It’s going backwards.”

Carroll was diagnosed with osteitis pubis earlier in the season and has been playing under duress for the Bulldogs.

He will also undergo surgery at the season’s end for a hernia.

Carroll hopes he can remain at Maher Oval as a player.

“Hopefully, but I’ll have to play it by ear and see how the body goes,” he said.

“I’d like to..but we’ll see what happens.”

It means the Bulldogs will be on the hunt for their fourth coach in four years.

Turvey Park president Stephen Stapleton said the club’s football committee has already begun the search for a replacement, with the preference being a playing coach.

Assistant coach Jeremy Sykes has already committed to re-signing in his role again for next year.

Carroll believes the coaching job will be highly sought after.

“I’m a bit envious, to be honest, of whoever they put into the role,” he said.

“We’ve built the foundations and it’s a dream job. It would be the best coaching job going around.

“We’re getting 40 and 50 to training in June and July and the whole club is firing with our reserves, 17s and netballers.”

It has not been easy going for Carroll this season.

Marquee recruit Kade Garland backflipped just a couple of weeks out from the start of the season, while Carroll himself was then forced to miss the opening three games due to a pre-season suspension.

Despite this, Turvey Park has won four of their 10 games and are a chance of returning to finals for the first time since 2010.

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