Family Matters: Warriors Drop Brown Bombshell

The Olympia Warriors have made a major off season move, announcing Andrew Brown as their senior NPL TAS coach for 2020, and in a major boon for the Warriors he won't be the only member of the family jumping aboard. Sons, Callum and Declan will also join the Warriors as players in the NPL squad, with the oldest of the trio, Lachie, also set to come on board in a coaching capacity once his time allows. The signings represents a massive coup for the 2019 runners up, with Callum and Declan emerging as two of the brightest attacking talents in the state over recent seasons and their addition will give the Warriors some major added firepower in attack for the next season. Andrew Brown is coming off a title winning season in charge of Hobart United in the Veto Southern Championship in which his side shone with a brand of highly entertaining and attacking football. A delighted Warriors President, George Mamacas, announced the signing and explained how the coaching setup would work.

“There’s no doubt that bringing over to Olympia FC for the long term a high-performance football family can only be fantastic for Olympia FC.” 

“Andrew will be head coach alongside Rob Clarke, who will be the football manager, so they’ll work in tandem. Andrew will pretty much have the final say, but in consultation with Robert.

“Callum and Declan, obviously, are up and budding superstars in the NPL and we’re very, very happy to have them in our NPL squad.

“Lachie wants to continue his coaching career and some time in the future he will do that will Olympia FC. I think he is someone who could be a senior head coach one day.”

Being together at one club as a family was the major motivation for the stunning move, and was what ultimately drove the deal to fall into place. 2019 Head Coach Rob Clarke had already indicated to the club he was looking for a succession plan to be installed, looking for someone new to take over at the end of next season. He reached out to Brown on that basis, sounding him out as a potential replacement for 2021, and as it happened the timing of that phone call could not have been better. Just a day earlier at a family dinner, the Brown clan had discussed the idea of all being at the same club in 2020 and had vowed to explore the possibilities of finding a club where that could be facilitated. It wasn't the first time the idea had been floated according to Lachie. "We talk about it every year, but then someone is always doing something else, or someone isn't playing, or someone is injured But, it's just worked this year and we may not get another chance so we just went for it."  "We needed to find a place where we can all be together because that was really important to us at this stage in our lives and Olympia facilitated that, so here we are.” said Callum There is no doubt the Brown family are a tighter knit family unit than most and they are clearly relishing this opportunity having now finally taken the plunge, despite being happy with their previous clubs.

“We were all happy at our other clubs and we loved our other clubs, but family for us was something we were missing, Thankfully, Olympia gave us that opportunity to actually be together and to do something we love." explained Andrew.

The opportunity proved too good to pass on for Mamacas and the Warriors brass too, accelerating their timeline, and prompting a change in coaching plans for the 2020 season. "The way it turned out and with everyone coming on board, it was just too good an opportunity to miss out on. So I am quite happy to stay in that other role." declared Clarke, who made it clear was completely comfortable with the final arrangement and said he was looking forward to working with Brown. Declan Brown said he and his brother had informed the Glenorchy Knights of their decision to move clubs earlier that day. "It was obviously a bit of a shock, but they all supported us with the decision even if they might not have agreed with it, but could understand the family motivation."  He said he was expecting some lively banter on the field when the Warriors meet Knights next season. "I think a lot of banter, but that happens with players at all clubs around the world, it's just part of football." [caption id="attachment_13480" align="alignnone" width="1600"] PlessPix[/caption]