With more than three decades of coaching experience under his belt, there were few more qualified candidates to take the position of the Crookwell Green Devils' head coach than Brian Gray.
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If this name sounds familiar to readers, it is because Gray grew up in town, played his junior league with the Green Devils, and played briefly for the senior side in 1977-78, before he moved into the Cootamundra side in 1979.
Beginning with Adelong in 1984 in a split player and coach role, Gray's coaching career took off in leaps and bounds.
He moved to Junee in 1986, where he coached a young Laurie Daley and oversaw the team to a premiership, before moving back to coach Cootamundra in 1988, with whom he raised a trophy in the same year.
From there, Gray was quickly recruited to coach the Eastern Suburbs' (now known as the Sydney Roosters) reserve grade team in 1991. He spent the next 25 years coaching the club's Jersey Flegg teams in the national Under 20s competition, the SG Ball (Under 18) side, the Harold Matthews (Under 16) side, and since 2012, working as the junior program manager.
After 2018, Gray decided that he needed a change of scenery, and decided to move back to Crookwell to oversee operations of his family farm.
"I grew up here, we've got a family property," Gray said.
"It just got to the point where we had to make a decision, either come back and make the farm work or sell it.
"I was just looking for a change, I'd spent 20-odd years in Sydney and it just got a bit stale and I had family here."
Though he did not intend to coach the Green Devils when he returned to Crookwell, Gray is excited to give something back to the club which was so important to his own development.
"I got a lot out of Crookwell when I was a kid, just helping and supporting my footy career," he said.
"It's time to give something back, that was the main motivation [for accepting the role]."
In the last three years, the Green Devils have made three George Tooke Shield grand finals, and won one, in 2018 against the North Canberra Bears.
Though there has been some player turnover throughout the years, the Devils have maintained a highly talented list, and Gray is eager to get to know the squad better as he brings his own style to the role.
"It's only early days, I'm still trying to get a bit of a feel for the lay of the land," Gray said.
"I was hoping to talk to a couple of players and get a bit of input from them and see where they thought the club could improve.
"I like to keep my coaching philosophies pretty simple, do the basics well, good discipline is key, and work hard in defence."
The trademark of the team's 2019 campaign was their propensity to play 20 to 30 minutes of unstoppable football, bookended by 40 to 50 minutes of lower intensity play.
Though the Green Devils gradually improved in this regard throughout the year, it is an area Gray hopes to further address with two key goals: better discipline and fitness.
"The best sides have got the best fundamental skills," he said.
"That's an area I'd like to work on, and fitness. Some of the early feedback I'm getting is that the fitness levels could be better. That helps with discipline on the field, it helps with concentration and composure.
"So discipline and fitness are probably the two key ones I'll be looking to address early on."
Along with his multitude of coaching experience, Gray is eager to utilise the lessons he learned in his talent development roles to build the Green Devils' young members into more complete players.
"From what I understand they've got a pretty young group," Gray said.
"[I'll focus on] the basic things, learning about the game, strategies and tactics and skills.
"Not everyone's lucky enough to spend 25 years with an NRL club, and you keep learning all the time there.
"Hopefully I can impart some of that stuff on that'll be new and help the players achieve their potential.
"That's where I come from, a developmental approach. If you can get 17 players to improve a little bit, you're going to have a pretty competitive side every week."
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