East Wagga-Kooringal announce Jake Barrett as the club's new coach

The Hawks unveiled the prized signing of Barrett at Gumly Oval on Friday, with the former AFL star joining EWK on a two-year deal.

Speculation had been rife for weeks that Barrett was headed to the Hawks but the deal was only formalised this week.

Barrett has spent the past five years at Coolamon since arriving directly at the club after being delisted by Brisbane Lions.

The 27-year-old spent three of those years in co-coaching partnerships before taking over the reins solo this season.

Ultimately, it was family and lifestyle reasons led him to accepting a new challenge at the Hawks.

"I'm very excited," Barrett said.

"Obviously there is mixed emotions because I was at Coolamon for five years. It was a real honour to be able to coach a club that's been around for over 100 years and did what I did because not many opportunities come up like that.

"It's sad to see that journey end but at the same time, I'm really excited about what's ahead.

"It was a hard decision for me, obviously Coolamon isn't too far out of town but it was just the travel and family in the end. I work in Gumly and live just down the road.

"Those that know me know I've got a very young family and it was just starting to take a lot of time up and I'm looking to get a bit of that back, in terms of time with family but also enjoy my football because that's what it's all about.

"Everyone loves their football and you want to get out and be social with people so I still wanted to have the best of both worlds but trying to get back to my family as much as I could."

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EWK clubman Paul Bourne believes it is a real coup for the Hawks to attract some of the calibre of Barrett to the club.

"We're ecstatic with getting Jake here for sure," Bourne said.

"Obviously we're hoping that Jake can build on the solid foundation that Matt Hard's left the club with, he did an unbelievable job, six years at the footy club through COVID.

"To be able to get a guy across the line like Baz to our footy club we're just stoked.

"The footy club's been going well for a while now. We've really tried hard to get our juniors up and running, we see that as a really big factor and obviously the club's in a good spot.

"We've re-signed most of our core group and we're hoping that everyone sticks around and we can add three or four to that, have an injury-free season would be really good, that affected us a lot over the last few seasons, it certainly didn't help, but we're ecstatic to get a guy like Jake, the club's in a good spot to have someone like this come on board."

Barrett replaces another former Coolamon coach in Matt Hard in the job. Hard stood down at the end of this campaign after six years at the helm.

Barrett has high hopes for the Hawks, who bowed out this year with a loss in the elimination final.

"Obviously I want what everyone wants to achieve, holding up a cup at the end of the year," he said.

"That's been my goal since I got back here, I wanted to do it at Coolamon but unfortunately we fell short, a few prelims and knocked out in an elimination final this year, which definitely hurt so that's what I'm striving for.

"I've had that success before and I know what that feeling is and to get that feeling again would be unreal and that's what we want to achieve.

"And East Wagga, that was a big part of me coming here, they want that as well, they're hungry for it, I think for them, I like to think that I'm very competitive and I can see that's what they want to be as well so we want to hit the ground running next year and give it everything we've got."

Barrett won a premiership in the Farrer League at Temora before being drafted to Greater Western Sydney.

He played one AFL game at the Giants before spending two seasons at Brisbane, where he enjoyed 22 games and kicked 19 goals.

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