Tyntynder have found their new senior coach, with Josh Stone set to take the reigns at the Dog’s in 2022.
Stone comes to kennel with a significant resume, having co-coached Woorinen alongside Marcus Demaria to the CMFNL Premiership in 2019, with Tyntynder president Luke Kelly telling The Guardian how thrilled they are to have locked down Stone to lead the club.
“It’s fair to say we’re pretty excited about getting him on board – we feel that he ticks all the boxes with regards to what we’re looking for in a senior and playing coach,” Kelly said.
“He’s achieved most things in football from a local perspective and he’s held in high regard around the league; we think he’ll lead from the front out on the field, but also bring a fair bit of knowledge with him as well.”
Stone will not only bring his coaching ability to his new club, but also a significant playing pedigree, having been a dual premiership player with Woorinen as well as a Best & Fairest winner with the Tigers in 2018 and Ultima in 2017.
Stone has also won the VCFL Medal as best on ground in the 2019 CMFNL Grand Final on top of being an Interleague representative on countless occasions.
Despite stepping aside from his co-coach role following the Tigers premiership triumph two years ago, the coaching bug was one that wouldn’t go away for Stone; and Tyntynder seemed to be the perfect fit.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do – obviously doing it with Marcus a few years back when we had a bit of success was something I enjoyed, but with having kids it was just a bit too much to try and take on straight away so I stepped back last season,” Stone said.
“The further the year went on I really missed not coaching and being that involved.
“They (Tyntynder) came to me, but I didn’t really think too much about it initially, I just wanted to get this season out of the way and then when we had the all clear that the season was being cancelled, we sort of sat down and spoke further.”
“With the list they have at the moment, it’s a list that I thought I could coach – there’s a lot of young kids that are all around that mid-twenty age bracket and I think they’ve all mostly committed for next season already bar maybe one or two, but certainly all the locals have committed,” Stone said.
Although the team out at Tigerland will undoubtedly be disappointed to lose a player of Stone’s caliber, he goes with his former club’s blessings and best wishes, highlighting the regard with which Stone is held.
“They understood where I was at and what I wanted to do – I made it pretty clear when we had a chat at the end of the year that I was keen to coach again and they’d already indicated that they were going with Marcus, so I said that I was going to see what was available and with Tyntynder having been in touch with me I thought I’d pursue that,” Stone said.
Stone will take over as head coach of Tyntynder from Justin Ellis, with a first finals appearance since 2013 the clear goal for both Kelly and Stone.
“Like anyone, we’re just looking for improvement; this year we obviously fell just short of making finals so naturally the next step is to get back into the top five and build on the work that Justin’s done these past few years,” Kelly said.
“We have a good core group of local guys and we think we’ve got the foundations there to take the next step; we think with Josh coming on board and with the addition of others we see no reason why we shouldn’t be pushing for finals.”
