Ask Joe Spicer and this was always part of the plan.
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Hang up the boots, coach a premiership-winning side then take on the top job at Parkes, or as he puts it “get into the side of things beyond coaching”.
Spicer was voted in as the club’s new president at the Parkes annual general meeting last month – taking over from Jamie Pope - not long after coaching the club’s league tag girls to another Group 11 premiership with a 22-10 victory over Westside on grand final day.
Part of the club’s 2013 first grade triumph, too, Spicer knows what it takes to be successful and he’s confident of leading a resurgence on board the spaceship in 2019.
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He says a stronger link with the prodigiously strong Parkes juniors and adding depth to the senior ranks were two of his main priorities.
“So far so good … we’ve had a fantastic response from existing sponsors, and that’s a priority, too, to make sure all of those supporters are happy,” he added.
“The best thing so far is Dennis (Moran) is elected as the junior rugby league president. I’ve got a close relationship there with Dennis from our playing days.
“We want to connect those two clubs, with the boys and girls, and that’s a focus.
“As a club we’re in a good position at the moment, we’re just solidifying everything done over the last couple of years.”
Spicer said he contemplated having a crack at the presidency last season, but had a pre-booked holiday mid-year and didn’t want his first attempt at running the Spacemen to be half-hearted.
“I wanted to do it right the first time,” he said.
“We’ve got a reasonably new committee. We’re just defining those roles now and getting things in place. Started a bit behind the eight ball last year so we’re just making sure ahead of the game.
Spicer said the club hasn’t put pen to paper with any players as yet, but was confident of retaining the bulk of last year’s squad and adding both quality and quantity in 2019.
That may include 2017 Group 11 player of the year Sam Dwyer, too – the star fullback opting not to re-link with Bathurst St Pat’s in Group 10 in 2019.
“There’s nothing I’d like more than to see Sammy back in the red, white and blue,” Spicer added.
“Depth is important, too. At the back end of last year we had niggles but still threw together a pretty good team at back end of year … but other clubs had more depth and we got blown away in last three games.”