HENWOOD Park stalwart Matt Menser is keen to make the most of his playing twilight years, revealing he will walk away from the Pascoe Cup coaching post should the club find a replacement.
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The Hawks were eliminated in the preliminary final by Lake Albert this year with coaching duties restricting Menser, still rated one of the competition's best players, to a pinch-hitting role off the bench.
But the attacking midfielder said the 2020 campaign could be his last and would prefer to focus soley on playing.
"If they can find someone else (to coach) then I won't go around again, but if they don't I'll be plan B," Menser said.
"I miss playing and didn't play much last year. I'm getting on so if I don't have a run around, that would probably be it for me.
"I just find it too hard to coach and be on the field at the same time.
"Quite potentially (next year could be the last), yes. Next year I'll be 36 and I'm not getting any younger, and the opposition is. I'll make up my mind as we get further along and see what happens."
If Menser does hand over the reins he's confident the club will be able to fill the coaching role internally.
"I'm pretty sure they've got a couple of plans in place and ideas around what we'll do," Menser said.
"We're not too worried, if I wasn't to go around again we'd fill it internally I'm sure. There's not a lot of options out there to be honest, we'd like to keep it in house.
"The club originally planned on, and do want to plan on having a (dedicated) sideline coach."
Menser said the 2017 premiers are well positioned to contend again and don't intend to bring in much outside talent.
"We didn't look to bring in anyone last year and it's about making sure we keep what we've got," Menser said.
"We still had a pretty good year, it's about holding onto everyone. It's a pretty young bunch in their mid to early twenties, if you keep that together you get good results."
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