Greig Ryan insists the chance to coach Aberdeen Grammar was an offer he simply could not refuse.
The new campaign in National 1 brings a new role for the former Grammar player who will be in his debut season as co-lead coach following the club’s relegation from the Premiership last season.
Ryan, who is partnered by former captain Nat Coe, who has also retired due to concussion issues, is excited at his new role.
He said: “I’m 36 now and I had reached the point at the end of the season where, having had a few niggling injuries which I had struggled to shake off, I’d made the decision it was time to hang up the boots.
“I wanted to stay involved in some capacity and was keen to get involved in coaching but when the club made the decision to go down a different route and offer a dual role to Nat and myself I jumped at the chance.”
Player response has been encouraging
Preparations for the new campaign started in earnest three months ago and Ryan is pleased with the progress which has been made at Rubislaw.
He said: “We’ve taken a different approach over the summer.
“We didn’t have a good season last we sat down with the players and asked them for their feedback on everything.
“They were honest on what they felt went wrong and areas where they felt we needed to focus on so Nat and I have taken that on board.
“We came back for training in June and we had a big focus on our strength and conditioning. As I result I can comfortably say we’re the fittest we’ve been in a long time.”
New coaches playing to their strengths
Ryan and Coe have put their own playing strengths to good use with the playing squad and the response from the players has been encouraging.
Ryan said: “I’m taking the forwards while Nat will look after the backs.
“He played a bit as a forward in his time but he was predominantly a defensive player so we’re going to play to our strengths as a coaching team.
“As with every club you lose some players and you gain some every summer but we’ve got a good group.
“We’ve improved our fitness, we’ve worked hard at upskilling the guys and our pre-season has gone well.
“It’s the same old thing in Aberdeen where you are waiting for students to return to the area before having your squad all together but hopefully the guys we had will be back.
“We’ve had between 30 and 35 players at training and they are all really keen so it bodes well.”
Tough start at Kelso
Winning promotion back to the Premiership is the aim for Grammar but Ryan is reluctant to make any predictions ahead of the new campaign which begins at Kelso tomorrow.
He said: “Kelso away is probably one of the biggest challenges we’ll face in in National 1 and it doesn’t get much tougher than going there on the first day of the season.
“They’ve got an experienced side and some ex-pros in there such as the McNeill brothers (Bruce and Keith) while the Kelso crowd is the 16th man down there.
“We know we’ll have to go there and play well if we are to get something from the game.
“It’s a rebuilding phase for the club. We’re a new group in a new league and all we can do is keep working away and focusing on ourselves.
“We’ll see where the season takes us. If we’re up there in the hunt for promotion then great but we’re under no illusions.
“This is a tough league with only one team going up and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”