The duo played at the Crows this season and replace Jason Kerr who has been at the helm for the past two seasons.

Simpson was excited to being taking charge of his home club.

"Dylan and I are thrilled to be given the chance to coach," Simpson said.

"I have been fortunate to play under some excellent coaches at the Crows and have tried to help them out as much as I could.

"With Jason stepping down it seemed to be the perfect timing to put my hand up and have a crack at coaching.

"You don't get too many opportunities to coach and it was probably a case of now or never.

"There is an enormous workload that goes into being a senior coach and being able to share the load with Dylan is ideal, especially with us both being rookie coaches."

ALSO IN SPORT

Simpson, 33, played his junior football at Oaklands.

The midfielder has also had stints at Western Suburbs, Wagga Tigers and Myrtleford.

Flanagan, 31, joined the Crows from Mulwala where he kicked 100 goals in the reserves on two occasions.

The Rennie junior also had stints at Katamatite, Mulwala and Tocumwal.

Simpson said the pair had already started re-signing as many players on this year's list as possible.

"It was only one year ago that we played finals so we have got a list capable of being a finals contender," he said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: