AFL North West: Tamworth Kangaroos reveal new-look coaching lineup for 2023

2022 men's coach, Richard Nicholl, and women's coach, Shannon Campbell, have stepped down, and will be replaced by the trio of Stuart Goldfinch, Emily Goldfinch, and Matt Hall.

Stuart, who co-coached the Kangaroos women alongside Campbell this year, will be the head coach for the club in 2023, and will oversee both senior teams.

He has previously coached the national navy women's team and in the Sydney AFL premier division, while he was also the first head coach of the Blue Heelers Academy.

Emily and Matt will be his assistant coaches, and will focus on the women's and men's sides respectively. The former coached the Blue Heelers under 17s girls' side in 2022, and has previously played Sydney premier grade, while the latter coached the Tamworth under 17 boys this year and was previously a member of the Sydney Swans Academy.

"With both Matt and Em playing as well, it wasn't ideal to have an on-field playing coach," Stuart said.

"So they can still do that role and play at the same time, but then have somebody with dedicated eyes on the sideline, looking in and providing that guidance."

Having begun coaching juniors in 2006 when his kids took up Aussie Rules in Sydney, Stuart hopes to impart some of his knowledge to his young assistant coaches.

But, he added, it will not be "the Stuart, Emily, and Matt show" this season.

"Obviously we have the final say, but we'll be putting it out there to the players as well to get them involved," Stuart said.

"We'll get the entire club involved, we want to get our supporters coming down and helping out."

As the club's pre-season preparations have only just begun, it is hard to say exactly what shape the playing sides will take next year.

Though Stuart said he is "not going to introduce mass changes to the way we do stuff", the men's team in particular is likely to look quite different in 2023 after a handful of retirements and player departures.

"We've got a fairly solid core base," he said.

"We've started a recruiting push to try and get more numbers in. Being up in the North West, it's a strong area for other codes and AFL's the 'poor cousin', so trying to get numbers through and get them out there playing is always going to be a tough ask.

"But we're confident we're going to be competitive."

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