Following his departure from Culcairn, Bosley held talks with the Bulldogs and will lead their charge for a third successive premiership in 2022.

Bullioh sat second, with a 5-3 record, when the 2021 season was cancelled in early August and Bosley is confident the club has what it takes to get back on top.

"They're a strong club with good leaders on and off the field," he said.

"Their focus this year is to dominate the competition, to finish top and win a flag, and they've got a good playing group.

"They presented themselves pretty well and they said 'all you have to do is coach, everything's in place.'

"I don't have to go in there and change anything, just add a couple of things here and there."

Bosley won five of his 16 games in charge of Culcairn, who will be coached for the next three seasons by Tim Haines.

"I was quite happy to walk away from football," Bosley admitted.

"But I had two meetings with the people at Bullioh and they had four or five guys at one of the meetings, which I thought was impressive.

"I said 'no' halfway through the meeting but by the end of the meeting, I said I'd go away and think about it.

"They only play 12 games in that league so that appealed to me a little bit because you get a couple of weekends off here and there throughout winter.

"I just liked the way they presented the club and their determination. They have clear focus and direction on where they want to be and I walked away from the meeting thinking 'I'll give this a go.'

"I met with a couple of the players and they're just ticking all the right boxes. It'll be good to get back into flat-out coaching, not having to worry about the recruiting side of things too much.

"They've got the players there ready to go."

Bullioh lost the 2017 grand final to Corryong but beat Federal in the 2018 decider before taking out Cudgewa 12 months later.

The Upper Murray has been hit hard by COVID in the two years since but league bosses are keen to expand the competition and have approached clubs in the Hume and Tallangatta leagues.

"I really enjoyed my time up there coaching Border-Walwa and I like that league," Bosley said.

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"It's a bit more community-orientated and great for families.

"They've had the bushfires up there and they've struggled because the competition's been cancelled mid-season this year, so it'll be good to see them get back on their feet."

Bullioh president Shayne Ried explained the club was keen to make an external appointment.

"We've had great success appointing coaches from within but for us to continually improve and bring in some new players, we thought someone like Craig Bosley suited that position perfectly," Ried said.

"We were very impressed with what he did at Border-Walwa in 2016-17 and he's had great success since then.

"He's certainly someone that values good culture and he'll be terrific for our club."

The Bulldogs lost two of their first three games in 2021 and were beaten twice by Cudgewa but they had won four of their last five when the season was cancelled.

"I don't think there will be a huge turnover of players between now and next season," Bosley said.

"There generally is up in that league but they reckon they've got most of their side committed.

"If I can bring two or three more players along, that's fine, but they've already got the nucleus there of being successful."

Bosley's appointment follows that of another non-playing coach, Matt Jones, at Federal.

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