Justin Maybury to co-coach Yackandandah alongside Darren Holmes

Maybury steps up to share the role with Darren Holmes, who remains at Butson Park for what will be his fifth year at the helm.

The pair have signed for two years.

"It's a great honour to lead a club I've spent most of my life at," Maybury said.

"We were out looking for someone to help 'Homer' with the coaching job and a few of the players mentioned to me over the last couple of months that I should think about putting my own hand up.

"I've enjoyed coaching at other levels in the Tallangatta League, down the grades, and it's something I do enjoy.

"I guess it's always in the back of your mind so to get that reassurance from a few of the players makes it a bit easier to slot into.

"We want to continue to bring as many kids through as we can that have been tied up with the club from a young age and make it an enjoyable place to be, which I think we've managed to do over the last four or five years."

Maybury, who's played more than 120 senior games for the club, takes the reins with the Roos firmly in the premiership window.

Yackandandah will play finals this year for the first time since 2010 having won 13 games and lost just one to sit second in the Tallangatta & District League behind Kiewa-Sandy Creek.

Maybury was delighted to see Holmes re-commit to the club having led such a resurgence.

"He's been great for the young guys, for the group and even for myself coming into the role," Maybury said.

"To work with someone like him, he's definitely got the respect of the group and the club and going forward, hopefully we can continue the relationship with the junior grades.

"He's really pushed the club in that direction, having senior guys training with the juniors throughout the year, and I think it's making a huge difference to the direction the club's heading in.

"I'm definitely going to enjoy working with him over the next couple of years."

Maybury believes the Roos have given themselves a wonderful launching pad for the next few years

"Our numbers through all the junior grades have been really strong for a fair while," he said.

"We've got some great coaches who are pushing the right messages to these guys and they're sticking around and having dinner on a Thursday night with their family which is making it a bit more seamless for those kids to come through.

"We're starting to build that base now through our senior grades, that it's a place people want to be and it's a place our juniors want to stick around."

To say Yackandandah has a special place in Maybury's heart would be a huge understatement.

"I've been at Yack my whole life," he said.

"I did have couple of years outside of Yack in the very early days but I've been here a long time and now I've got three young boys playing here as well, running around in the under-12s and Auskick.

"It's definitely been a great part of my life, I've enjoyed being here and I'm sure I will in the future."

Since joining the TDFL in 1972, the Roos have only won two senior premierships, the most recent of which came in 2000.

"There's no doubt we've been starved of success for a fair while and that hasn't been broken yet," Maybury said.

"You can count the success in senior flags but the rest of the club has to be brought along with it.

"It's not something that gets built overnight, it's not something that gets bought, it's something we've been building for a fair while and we feel we're putting our club in a good position to be successful for the long term rather than just the short term."

The Roos are away to third-placed Beechworth in the match of the round on Saturday.

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: