Russell, a premiership player at Narrandera in 2012, was Aiken's assistant this year but the two will form a senior coaching partnership for the Magpies' anticipated return next season (pending COVID-19, of course).

"I'm probably at the end of my career in terms of playing and coaching has always been a keen interest of mine, probably more so than playing over the last few years," Russell said.

"I think Brad and I complement each other a little bit. Obviously we didn't get any games in this year but I thought we worked well. Brad's got the respect of the players with his playing career and I feel like with what I've done, I might be able to contribute."

"Taking the club forward is the main thing we want to do. That's the challenge, to get the club back to where it should be."

Russell has had experience, and success, coaching Goulburn to two premierships in his five years with the club in Canberra's district-level league. He's also taken charge of a talented under 18s team at Nelson Bay, near Newcastle.

Introduced to TRYC by Tim Sullivan, Russell played with the Pies in 2018. After two years helping coach Greater Western Sydney Giants academy squads, he was thrilled to be given a senior opportunity.

"It's a great club and we think we've got enough talent and a lot of young guys," he said. "It's about trying to take the club forward. Premierships would be fantastic but if we can progress the players and leave the club in a better position, whenever that might be, that's the main thing."

Aiken is excited at the prospect. He believes they've got similar ideas and a shared background through Giants academy work, and was keen to extend a promising partnership.

"Even though I had the coaching tag and he was assistant, it was pretty much 50/50 and we bounced ideas off each other, so I'm rapt to have him on board," Aiken said.

"We're trying to hit the ground running and get things organised early. I hope we can start getting some recruiting done, pick up some players that we need and hopefully play some finals next year.

"We're going to be prepared early, that's the bonus.

"We've got a long time til next season."

TRYC last played finals in 2017. Magpies co-president David Pieper said the club is excited at what lies ahead, on and off the field.

"We're really rapt to have the quality of those two blokes taking it on and the club's working hard on making sure they'll have a good team, plenty of numbers and good facilities," Pieper said.

"We've spent a bit of money out there over the last six months. By the start of next season, there'll be a top quality surface, a new scoreboard, a second ground for juniors and another changeroom, a big playground for the kids and another netball court too. It'll be a nice little facility."