After finishing eighth this year, McLaughlin is confident the Blues can improve on their 2010 finals appearance when he takes charge next season.

“They’ve got huge potential,” McLaughlin said.

“To finish eighth this year when they had the injuries they did was a great effort.

“They beat Tarrawingee at one stage during the season, who were the eventual premiers, and guys like Chris O’Connor and Steve Brooks, who is the captain, are still only in their late teens to early twenties so I reckon there is definitely plenty of potential there.”

Despite the fact he is yet to sit down and properly assess the Blues’ playing list, the former Wangaratta Rovers midfielder said an improved finals effort would be his main aim for next year.

“It’s only October and so it’s still really early but finals are our first aim for next season and we’ll work from there,” he said.

“I’ll be getting together with the recruiting panel at the club as of now and we’ll start talking to people and see how we go.

“We probably need a strong backman but I haven’t had a chance to talk to the playing group much yet.”

McLaughlin, who played his 200th Ovens and Murray game this year, joins the Blues after an illustrious career with the Hawks, which saw him inducted as a life member of the club this season.

He also spent three seasons at rival O and M club Yarrawonga, as well as playing the 2008 season with Golden Square in the Bendigo league.

“It’s an exciting new challenge for me and I’m looking forward to it,” McLaughlin told The Border Mail.

“At my age, coming to the end of my career, it was starting to get a lot harder to achieve something at O and M level and it made me start thinking about it all.

“Greta have approached me for the last couple of years and I really thought that now was probably the right time to do it (coach) and it all sort of fell into place from there.”