Wangaratta has made a major move to end the dominant reign of arch rivals Myrtleford by appointing former A-League player Daniel Vasilevski as a senior playing coach next season.
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Vasilevski, 37, relocated to Rutherglen earlier in the year and joined Murray United during the mid-season transfer window as the NPL club’s marquee signing.
The apprentice barber admitted work commitments on Saturdays limited him to only playing home games for Murray this season.
During the year, Vasilevski was put in contact with Wangaratta by outgoing goalkeeper Jon Shaw, who has departed the club to move to Queensland, and jumped at the chance to get back into coaching.
He replaces Mario Antonello at the helm who is expected to remain as an assistant.
“I’d been to watch them play a few times and spoke to Mario (former coach Mario Antonello) and Wally (president Wally Pasquali) and had a really good feeling about it,” Vasilevski said.
“I’ve always had a pretty keen interest in coaching, I coached last season in Geelong in the Victorian State One league as an assistant and I enjoyed it.
“The opportunity to do it as a head coach and also play if I want to as well is appealing to me with Wang.
“I guess my experience will help me being involved in many different teams and also coaching a little bit, but I don’t know much about the local league.
“I’m a young coach and I’m a new coach, so I’ve got lots to learn as well.
“I’ll expect people at the club to help me, it’s not a one-man show.”
Vasilevski informed Murray United officials and senior coach Elliot Jones of his decision straight away, but hasn’t ruled out a return.
“They wanted me to hang around and do a proper pre-season with them to see how the body pulls up, but the thing with Murray is I can’t play away games,” Vasilevski said.
“I’m working on Saturdays, so I was only playing the home games and sometimes there’s three away games in a row and it kind of breaks up my rhythm as well.
“I still keep in contact with (club director) Pedro (Afonso) and ‘EJ’ (Elliot Jones) and we’ve still got a pretty good relationship.
“I’ll probably contact ‘EJ’ every now and then and ask him for some advice, so I’m not afraid to draw on my friends and people I know within football.”
Since retiring from playing at the elite level, Vasilevski had the desire to take on more coaching.
“I went out and did my C-licence course with the FFA and I will look to get my B-licence as well because to coach in the NPL you need your B-licence,” he said.
“As a coach I like to do things my way and I expect 100 per cent from my players.
“I’m a coach that would like to build close relationships with players and build trust with my players.”
Vasilevski will meet the with the club this week and wants to have a clear plan in place for pre-season.
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