THE Monaro Panthers Football Club have appointed former Woden Valley and Weston-Molonglo coach Graeme Plath as their new men's head coach for the 2015 season, as the club also secured a three year men's and women's Premier League licence.
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Plath has a coaching record dating back 25 years, and has coached other clubs in the men's Premier League competition for a total of ten years, with the Panthers hoping he can bring a new level of professionalism to the club to lift results in the Premier League.
Former head coach Njegosh Popovic sought release from Monaro last month, and is pursuing coaching opportunities at other clubs, while the Panthers are yet to appoint a technical director, which is a newly created position.
Panthers' president Simon France said Plath's professional attitude was what it was looking for to move its senior mens program forward.
"He has a good attitude about how he treats his players, how he works with coaching staff in the team, how he works across the board and the committee, and how he delivers training, and that's what we're excited about," France said.
Popovic said he was disappointed to leave the club, but said in spite of being out favoured by Pluth, said he was happy with what he achieved in his three years as head coach.
"I put a number of programs for our Premier League, under 20s and under 18s sides, and right down to under 12s we've improved a lot," he said.
Plath, a former Panthers reserves coach, will be joined by assistant coach Pepe Lopera, and said he was also hoping to bring back a number of players to the club.
"I'm working on bringing back to Monaro those of its juniors who are currently with other premier league clubs. There's no new signings as of yet, but there's been plenty of interest," Plath said.
Meanwhile, the club was one of just four Canberra Premier League clubs to be granted a three-year licence by Capital Football last week.