Leeton-Whitton has made the shock appointment of Tom Groves as the club's new senior coach.
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The Crows made the announcement over the weekend, with Sam Darley stepping down amid a return to Victoria for family reasons.
Darley quickly established himself as arguably the best player in the Riverina League this season in a strong first year in charge at the Crows.
But the club has secured Darley to return in 2022 as a travelling player.
"The good news is that Sam has signed and will be returning as a travelling player for season 2022 and is super keen to stay involved with the club that he represented so well this year," Leeton-Whitton's David Meline said in a club statement.
Leeton-Whitton were quick to act and have lured the well-credentialed Groves across from Coleambally to take over the job.
Groves has experience in the VFL at Coburg, before returning to the region.
He spent a year at Griffith as assistant coach, before returning home to the Blues where he was an assistant to Brandon Mathews, before taking on the top job as co-coach alongside Mitch Carroll.
The 32-year-old has also been involved with the Giants Academy as a coach in recent years.
Groves said he is excited to be taking on the Crows' position.
"I'm excited to get into it. I feel really excited and can't wait to get into it, really," Groves said.
"It's something I've always thought of doing and now I've got the opportunity to do it. At Coly, I did the co-coaching with Mitch Carroll there for a year and that fueled the fire, I suppose. I was assistant coach up until then and dipped my toe into it and I've always had the desire to do it.
"Doing the Giants stuff this year has really helped me and helped me grow as well. That made me want to coach more, I suppose."
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While Groves is keen to lead the Crows' to a return to finals football, he will also have a significant development focus.
"I obviously want to keep them going in the trajectory they're going at," he said.
"They've shown great improvement throughout last year, so if I can just help with that, help develop individuals and help the team become successful, that's the goal.
"As everyone does, you want to be fighting into finals and be successful, I suppose. That's always an aspiration. But it will be good to see development as individuals, as well as the team as well.
"(The Giants coaching has) been a great stepping stone with the way I want to coach."
A fractured eye socket ended Groves' season this year after seven games, where he featured in Coleambally's best on five occasions.
He will wait to see how the Crows' list shapes up before determining where he will slot into, but he has spent a lot of time across half-back in recent years.
Groves added that he was thrilled to keep Darley on board as he takes on the role.
"He'll have great leadership and direction for the players. He'll know them on a bit better level next year as well," he said.
"It's fantastic for the club and fantastic for the team and it really helps me too, I suppose.
"There's a good young group there to work with and they're obviously showing a lot of improvement. Sam's done a really good job and he'll still be there to help out and everything."
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