Forsyth, Sulaiman to take over South Wagga Pascoe Cup head coaching role

Stepping into the head coaching role for their first top grade positions are duo Nick Forsyth and Faisal Sulaiman.

Despite only playing a year on field together, they're excited to see how the partnership can help move the club forward next season.

Sulaiman steps up into first grade having coached lower grades at the club, while Forsyth returns after a stint with the Wanderers.

"Faisal has some coaching experience in the lower grades, this will be my first role but I've been playing for a long time and I've got lots of experience at different clubs," Forsyth said.

"It's definitely something that when it came up it interested me, and to work with Faisal is a big plus, it'll be a new challenge but I'm looking forward to it."

"I did some coaching back in 2019 with third grade and it was really good, then we had seasons cancelled with COVID but I'm really happy and excited to coach first grade for the first time," Sulaiman added.

The duo believes they'll bring different perspectives to the coaching role and are hoping to balance each other.

Far from their best season, South Wagga finished seventh on the ladder in 2023.

Bringing in new faces and additional experience into the squad is key to their development plan for 2024.

Alongside Sulaiman and Forsyth, they'll also welcome Luke Nichols back into an assistant coaching role.

"We'll bring Luke Nichols, who has coached here before, in as an assistant as well," Forsyth said.

"He played with the boys last season as well, so he's another person who can help bridge that gap with a bit of experience especially coaching."

While it's still early days for the pair, they admitted that they've started to look at what players may take the field next year.

"There will be change in the whole team, we have new ideas and new players hopefully," Sulaiman said.

"We have a few players, we're not 100 per cent if they're going to play or not but pretty sure there will be a few new players."

"We want to keep who we can and things like that but we probably expect a lot of new faces next season as well," Forsyth said.

"We want to get as much of a core squad as we can by the first preseason and we can start putting our ideas together and getting people to gel on the field."

Hoping to see the club return to Pascoe Cup finals next year, the duo will hit the ground running in 2024.