CULCAIRN has appointed Craig Bosley as coach for the next two seasons.
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Bosley has almost a decade's experience coaching at a lower standard.
He will take over from Josh Hillary who led the Lions to the preliminary final this season.
Bosley played in the Lions' most recent flag in 2007 and has strong family ties to the den.
"I feel it's an honour to coach a club with such a proud history," Bosley said.
"This will be my tenth year coaching but this is by far my most exciting and biggest challenge.
"My grandfather played at the club and my mum grew up in the town.
"My uncle (Banjo Pattison) is a premiership player and best and fairest winner with Culcairn.
"My wife Shelley and her family are also from the town.
"I may have only arrived at Culcairn from Adelaide when I was 32 but I still consider it my home club.
"So there will be some familiar faces at the club and quite a few new ones that I look forward to meeting."
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Bosley said his first priority was to re-sign the majority of the list with the Lions also close to announcing several recruits.
"It's great to see Jye and a few of the other boys have a crack at O&M," he said.
"Obviously they are class players who will be hard to replace but it does provide opportunities.
"I only signed last week but the committee has been active on the recruiting front and the signs are promising."
Bosley has been highly successful coaching in the lower grades and boasted a dream start to his coaching career.
He led Culcairn reserves to back-to-back flags in 2009-10 before crossing to Thurgoona and leading its reserves to a hat-trick in 2011-13.
Bosley took a two-year break from coaching before taking the Border-Walwa job from 2016-18.
He coached Wodonga Raiders reserves this year.
Culcairn president Brendan Sheather said Bosley's 2007 premiership teammate, Shannon Gilson, had been appointed an assistant coach.
Drue Mortlock who coached the reserves this season will be development coach.
"We feel Craig has done an extensive apprenticeship and deserves his opportunity," Sheather said.
"Shannon played in our last flag and is highly regarded for his footy brain and will have a lot to do with our game plan and structures.
"Drue is going to step into a development role because we have got plenty of kids coming through and he will spend a lot of time one-on-one teaching them.
"We want to provide Craig with as much assistance as we can.
"We are just trying to get more professional as a club and feel this is a step in that direction."
