Mudra joined the Hawks in 2017 and led them to the grand final in his first season in charge before going on to be crowned Tallangatta league premiers in 2018.

They'll finish third on the ladder this season, after the league voted to cancel the remainder of the home-and-away season, but Mudra feels it's time for someone else to take the top job.

"I often preach to our playing group that your two major priorities in life are family and work or study," Mudra said.

"If those two things are right in your life, the flow-on effect to your hobbies and external activities becomes significantly easier.

"I talk the talk but it's time for me to walk the walk in terms of those values.

"My three kids are getting older and a lot of stuff was falling to my wife. The balance in my life was getting out of whack and my family was poorer for that balance.

"I need to invest more time in my family.

"When I'm preaching those values to the playing group, it's hard to walk away from them yourself.

"I had that chat with the playing group about when and, more importantly, why I was finishing up.

"I love football and I love coaching but it became really evident, particularly at stages this year, that my work/footy/life balance was out of whack and I needed to rectify that pretty quickly."

Hawks president Damien Britton paid tribute to Mudra.

"I think Muddy has done a brilliant job and they're huge boots to fill but we need to move forward as a club," Britton said.

"We're open to new ideas. We always throw up the playing coach idea just because it's something we haven't had for a lot of years.

"For the right bloke, yes, we'd look at it but we're probably looking for that ex-O and M somebody that could fit our family values and could fit the Kiewa way.

"We've spoken to a few and a lot of people have a lot of good things to say about Kiewa because of the way we go about it.

"That's what we're looking for, somebody who's going to be a family clubman."

Mudra is confident the Hawks will continue to be a force after he's gone.

"We're all biased, we all look at our football clubs with rose-coloured glasses but our footy club is a great football club and I'm just a custodian of the club at the moment," he said.

"We'll find a great coach who will come in and drive the club to even greater places.

"I've got no doubt about that because the people both on and off the field are too good to allow it to go anywhere but up.

"I walk into football clubs and my goal is to help leave the club in a better place than I found it.

"I'll let others debate that but all I can say is the club has certainly made me a better coach and, more importantly, a better person.

"I can't speak highly enough of the football club, the players and the people involved."

The Hawks won 80 percent of their home and away games during Mudra's time in charge and reached the preliminary final in 2019.

"That stuff is important to some," Mudra reflected.

"When I finish up, I probably will look back with fondness but at the moment, I see my role as not so much about winning and losing but about trying to develop and improve the playing group as people as much as footballers.

"I look at coaching from a holistic point of view.

"The footy's one part of it but we need to be developing people off the field as well.

"I really hope I've been able to add some value to the players on the field but also to help them become better people, whether that be from a family piece, a work piece or just from a social piece.

"You see these guys transitioning from single men to being married with kids and you see that evolution before your eyes. That's really exciting for me, to see that growth in them as individuals.

"I just hope they've been able to take something away from the way I view football and life.

"That's the way I see my role as a coach of a football club, to help guys navigate through life both on and off the football field. It's a key driver for me."

Britton has seen the club benefit from Mudra's approach.

"Muddy's very big on the junior side of it," he said.

"He doesn't think 'oh well, such and such is coming out of the Ovens and Murray next year, let's drag them to Kiewa,' he thinks 'we've got four or five kids coming up from the juniors so let's put some work into them' and it shows.

"We've got that many one-pointers at our club."

Kiewa-Sandy Creek's new coach will be expected to build on a proud record.

"You look back through the years and I think there's only been one year in the last 20-odd that we haven't made finals," Britton said.

"And there wouldn't be many of them that we haven't made the prelim.

"We're very strong in seniors, very strong in juniors generally and it's a very strong family-orientated club.

"I seem to throw this family word in a lot but that's what we really strive for out there."

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Mudra admitted it was hard breaking the news to his players and that he was still coming to terms with the reality himself.

"I feel like it's come at us pretty quickly," he said.

"It's hard to believe there are only four weeks of footy left, if all the planets align.

"On the one hand, it's exciting, but on the other hand, it's come and gone pretty quickly, the 2021 season.

"I'm more excited for the playing group.

"They invest significantly in terms of time, both at the club and away from the club and they're champing at the bit to be able to get back to playing footy.

"That's something they love doing.

"They love the competitive nature of it and they love being involved with like-minded people who want to achieve things they want to achieve."

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