Tumut's premiership defence has been dealt a big blow with Tommy Warner leaving the Blues to coach Group 11 club Nyngan.
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Warner, who came to the club after being named the best player in the Canberra Raiders Cup competition, made a big impact as the Blues broke their nine-year premiership drought.
The second rower admitted it was a tough call to leave the club after securing his first premiership, but the chance to coach was too tempting.
"The captain-coach role was something I really didn't want to knock back and is something I've wanted to do," Warner said.
"I've had to make a couple of tough phone calls over the last few days to let the boys know I was heading off as it's definitely somewhere down the track I'd like to head back for another season or two."
The 27-year-old replaces former NRL player Justin Carney as the Tigers coach.
Nyngan were knocked out in the preliminary final by eventual champions Wellington, and Warner believes there is plenty to work with next year.
"They've played in a couple of prelims including making the prelim this year and fell by eight points to the eventual premiers," he said.
"Hopefully I can help them with a bit of premiership experience from this year and try to get them over the hump."
Brother Ben, who started in the grand final win over Southcity, joins him in making the move to the Tigers.
Warner, who lives in Cootamundra and works in Wagga, is also looking forward to travelling less with the change.
"There is plenty of work there for me and my two brothers so we head down there and I'm pretty much sick of travelling to work and footy and everywhere in between," he said. "It's time to be subtract on the travel and knuckle down on some footy."
The Blues are yet to lock in their coaching set-up for 2020, however premiership-winning coach Dean Bristow admitted the losses would have a big impact.
"With our situation they really bolstered our depth this year," Bristow said.
"They're premiership players with us so we will definitely miss them and are holes to fill.
"We will have to start having a look about to see what we can do there."
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