But in his mind there's no grey area the change will help him rediscover the love for playing he lost a little as Bulldogs co-coach in 2019.

The midfielder didn't play for the Bulldogs last year due to coronavirus concerns, and fellow former Turvey Park co-coach Mark Carroll is now working in tandem with Jake Barrett at the Hoppers.

It is a mouth-watering subplot when the Riverina League returns to a semblance of normality on April 18.

"It would have been nice to get a couple of games in there first before I go back to play Turvey but it wasn't to be, and it should draw a crowd anyway," Sykes laughed.

"Once we play them then I can concentrate on the rest of the season. It's a good one because it settles the nerves right away, and in a new team you want to make that good impression straight up.

"There's no better way than to do that against my old club. It will be more walking into the away sheds which will be a bit weird. Going into the home sheds and seeing red, white and blue is a bit different to seeing grey on the wall (in the away sheds).

Looking back, the 26-year-old feels coaching in 2019 saw him lose some of his zest for playing, and a new challenge was needed.

"Half the idea was to get out of the Turvey bubble. The last couple of years I was more fixated on the coaching side of things, and probably lost a bit of love for playing myself," he said.

"It's a good time to sit in the shadows, do my bit, find that love for the game again and not be worrying about the pressure of looking after 21 different blokes.

"I'll let them (Barrett and Sykes) do it, they're the ones taking the lead and I can step back and play some footy.

"When you're around a club for so long you go through the motions when you're stagnant. Being at Coolamon, a new club and a new group of blokes around me, it will make me strive to be better, take some young fellas with me and we can be successful together.

"There's a lot of guys around my age, it's family oriented and the local community gets behind the footy club, and I loved that side of things when I was at Lockhart."

The Bulldogs will have a number of new faces under new coach Michael Mazzocchi this year, but Sykes hopes the inside knowledge he and Carroll have will be helpful.

"Between me and Curl (Carroll) we know what their young fellas are like and have done some development with them over the last couple of years, but they've got some recruits as well which we aren't aware of," he said.

"You never know what a new coach will do and the group of players have changed. The inside knowledge might help, but it might not be much good either.

"With Matt Harpley coming over (to Coolamon) and Luke Gerhard as well, there's a couple of really good forwards there who can run through the middle.

"And their young talent is really striving to be in that first grade side."

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