Zac Masters going solo in coaching role as Tumut chases repeat

For the first time since 2017 the Blues will only have one coach next year.

After guiding Tumut to premiership success alongside Lachlan Bristow this year, Zac Masters will do take on the coaching role solo in 2024.

With the Blues finalising their committee at the second attempt on Thursday night, they were quick to confirm Masters as their lone coach for 2024.

The front rower, who has coached in partnership with Bristow for the past three seasons, doesn't expect being the standalone coach will change this too much.

"Obviously Lachie has gone over to France for an adventure, which will be an awesome experience, so I will be coaching alone for next year," Masters said.

"Lachie and I had a pretty similar style and while it was always good to run ideas off one another I've still got people around me I can bounce those ideas off.

"Dean Bristow is there as part of the executive committee now but hopefully he will be playing again next year.

"We'll see how he goes in the pre-season but he's certainly happy to help me out wherever needed."

READ MORE

It is a change of approach for the club.

They have employed co-coaching partnerships in the past six seasons with Dean Bristow and Adam Pearce taking the reins in 2018 before guiding the club to the premiership the following year.

Lachlan Bristow then replaced Pearce, who stepped back into a playing role, for the 2020 season before Masters came into the fray.

After failing to get a committee at the first attempt, the Blues held a successful second annual general meeting on Thursday.

Tom Arragon is back for a second stint as president with Grant Fenn vice president and Dean Bristow junior vice president.

Masters' mother Joanne is the club's new secretary while his partner Heni Ede comes in as treasurer.

With the coaching structure and committee now sorted, Masters is now looking to address Tumut's large player turnover following their grand final win last month.

Not only is Lachlan Bristow playing in France, Jacob Sturt has headed back for another shot at the Queensland Cup, Pearce and Robbie Byatt have retired while Tom Hickson is also moving away.

While recruitment is a focus, Masters also wants to stick with the strong local connection that has been working for the Blues.

"Obviously we're losing a few very handy ones from last year that have gone onto bigger and better opportunities, which is great, and the exciting thing for our club is our reserve grade has improved so much over the last couple of years," he said.

"Even some of the kids coming out of the 18s have shown some real talent and I think it's an opportunity to give some of those boys a go.

"There's only one way to learn and that's playing top grade footy.

"Being thrown into the deep end is sometimes the best way to do that.

"We're certainly on the hunt for a couple of signings and we will see how we go from there."

Tumut's grand final victory means they only have 75 points to play with next year.

As such Masters knows he can't afford too many new faces either.

"We've been really lucky with the position the club was in six years ago when we were really struggling and lost a lot of those local blokes but a lot came home and it put us in the position we're in," he said.

"It's really hard in country footy to sign players from elsewhere and have success that way.

"Sometimes the locals can get disheartened by not getting the opportunity and now with the points system it makes it even harder.

"You've only got some many points to use in a year and if you use those up it doesn't give the locals an opportunity.

"Sometimes you do need to just to field a decent first grade side but the way country footy is going at the moment you certainly need to nurture that young talent and bring them through to grade."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: