After a long search for a coach, North Wagga found the man to lead their premiership defence was hiding in plain sight.
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Midfielder Cayden Winter has been appointed senior coach at the Saints, putting an exclamation point on an outstanding 2019.
North Wagga's co-captain won the club's best-and-fairest, the Farrer League's Player of the Year award (voted by coaches), best on ground in the grand final, and was runner-up in the league medal.
The 24-year-old attracted interest from Riverina League clubs but with the Saints already facing significant departures, he wasn't keen to leave his premiership teammates. After careful consideration, he agreed to lead them, stepping into the shoes vacated by Kirk Hamblin.
"I'm pretty excited really," Winter said.
"Obviously Kirk's done a great job over the last four years getting the club into a really good spot so I just want to keep building on what he's already put in place."
Winter hadn't initially put his hand up to coach but as the club's search went on, he heeded some good advice.
"It's not every day a coaching opportunity comes up and if you do want to get into it, you might as well grab it with both hands," he said.
"I did think about it a lot. It was joked about a bit early and I didn't think much of it at the start but I spoke to people I trusted.
"What swung my decision was probably knowing that I had all the boys' backing. They were keen for me to do it. I knew that Kirk was still there, he could help me out, and there's a lot of good people around the club, even guys like Chad (Hamblin) and 'Dowds' (Nathan Dowdle)."
Those former Saints coaches will offer support while Winter also took the chance to thank Dean Spencer and Ben Carey who coached him at Tumbarumba. After a couple of years away from the game he said "they pointed me in the right direction and really made me love footy again."
North Wagga president Brendan Nilsen said the new coach has proven himself as a leader on the field, featuring in Saints' best in 16 of 19 games this year, and 21 times across the previous two seasons since coming back from Tumbarumba.
"He's shown leadership and commitment and he's a great clubman. We did look outside the club but we're very excited to appoint a North Wagga junior as coach," Nilsen said.
"He's got some developing to do and we're still working through our assistant coaching plans. But he's got the full support of the boys and they're ready to mature and take on more responsibility and help out a bit."
North Wagga head into 2020 without midfielders Jake May, Tom Bennetts and Jed Winter (moving away), defender Brayden Skeers (Henty), and the retiring Lachie Steward and Jimmy Morris.
"We'll try and recruit a couple of players. Obviously we'll have a pretty young side which isn't a bad thing. I think our strength will be our fitness, our youth and hunger to rip in and have a crack," Winter said.
Getting back to a third straight grand final will be the goal.
"Bloody oath, I'd love to."
The Northern Jets are the only Farrer League club still to confirm their coaching plans for 2020.
Winter is the third coaching change in the competition, along with Brad Aiken at The Rock-Yerong Creek and Curtis Steele coming in as co-coach with Luke Hillier at Coleambally.
Matt Hard (East Wagga-Kooringal), Shane Lenon (Marrar), Jake Wooden (Temora), Pat Noonan (CSU) and Sean Browning (Barellan) are all continuing in their roles.
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