Highly-respected coach Matt Hard will lead East Wagga-Kooringal into a fourth season (and fifth year) next year after re-signing with the Hawks.
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Hard laughed that he's a 'sucker for punishment' after recommitting for 2022 but is naturally thrilled to be taking the reins again.
"I'm going again next year," Hard said.
"It's good. I'm excited by it. The club's in a really good position and we've got a good group there."
Hard led EWK to a grand final in 2019 and the Hawks are currently second on the ladder this year, a couple of games behind Marrar, who at times they looked like overcoming on their home deck at Langtry Oval last week.
However, they struggled to apply scoreboard pressure without big man Nick Hull (knee) and full-forward Jarrad Boumann (hamstring).
Neither is named for this Saturday's game against Barellan and Hard concedes they don't know when Boumann might be available, given he lives on the NSW-Victoria border.
"I think he will play for us again. He's on the NSW side of the border, so that's handy," Hard said.
"He works in Walwa but it's one of those things we'll keep an eye on. The rules are always changing. He won't play this week, I know that much, and we'll keep an eye on it."
The Hawks do welcome back Jarrod Turner and Brenton Roberts while defender Tim Smith could play in the final week of the home-and-away season if his recovery from an ankle injury 10 weeks ago remains on track.
After the Two Blues, EWK play a hot Northern Jets before a final round hit-out against CSU.
"I just want to see consistency over the next three weeks. We obviously brought effort last week but fell short and there's a few things we've got to tidy up on," Hard said.
"The beauty is the boys were really hurting afterwards so there's definitely a lot of care there. We're not going to shy away from the fact that we've got to improve to beat Marrar but we're definitely up for the challenge."
Beyond concentrating on this year's finals campaign, Hard said re-signing players for next year is one focus, along with seeing if the club can get back to fielding an under 17.5s team.
"That's one of the aims, we know we've got a bit of work to do on the junior side of things," Hard said.
The two-time premiership winning coach (Northern Jets and Coolamon) said the over-arching factor in deciding to go again is that he has enjoyed his time at Gumly.
"I think that's the big thing - it's a big job but you've got to enjoy what you do and I'm enjoying it," he said.
"It's a big part of my life and being around the group, I'm enjoying working with them and hopefully seeing some improvement."
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