Jess Allen will coach Wagga Tigers in A grade next season

Allen is a former captain of the Tigers and has long been regarded as one of the elite players of the competition claiming the league best and fairest in 2022.

Having previously coached both the A reserve and B grade sides, Allen said she was looking forward to taking on a new challenge next season.

"Yeah I'm very excited," Allen said.

"It's something that I've wanted to do for the last few years now so it's nice for an opportunity to pop up at the club that I love to do it.

"I'm also very nervous knowing that I have very big shoes to fill after the last couple of coaches but I am very excited."

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Allen steps into the role having coached the A reserve side for the past four to five years and having coached B grade prior to that.

She admitted that she had gotten pretty comfortable in her position and was looking forward to stepping outside her comfort zone.

"I was definitely ready for a new change," she said.

"I probably got pretty comfortable coaching A res so it's nice to step outside my comfort zone a little bit."

In addition to her coaching experience, Allen also has leadership experience at A grade level and she was hopeful that would make her transition into the role a little bit easier.

"I hope so," she said.

"Obviously being a playing coach it probably adds a bit more pressure trying to watch everyone while also concentrating on your own game.

"But I guess you get a bit of experience with that being captain as well so I'm hoping that does help me."

Stacey Curran will be assistant coach next season and Allen said she was very much looking forward to working alongside her.

"I was very excited to hear that she wanted to get into coaching," she said.

"I think we'll work very well together so it will be nice to have her on the sidelines helping me out."

The dust has just settled on the past season however looking forward to 2024 Allen believes the Tigers will have a different looking side.

"We are going to have a very new side," she said.

"We have a lot of girls going to uni, moving away and going interstate so it will be a very new side.

"But we also have a lot of depth in our club as a whole so I'm not too stressed about that.

"It's good to be able to give a lot of the younger girls a step up, we are also looking to recruit some more players but our first point of call will be giving those girls that do deserve it an A grade opportunity.

"So I'm excited to be able to give them that as well."

Allen has already got her eye on a couple of young emerging players and believed that they could be ready to take the next step in 2024.

"Elisa Cook won our A res best and fairest so I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do," she said.

"I think she's ready for that next step up and then we also have Claudia Wheatley and Elysia Smith from A grade as well who I think are going to play a big part in the development of the team next year.

"They've obviously got a couple of years experience there now and I'm tipping them to have a pretty big breakthrough season next year."

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