Calcott quits Wests to take over at Miramar

ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post

NEW BOSS: Matt Calcott will head the Miramar rangers next season.

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Miramar Rangers have bagged the Central League's most successful coach in recent times in a cross-town move that will add much spice to the 2010 season.

Matt Calcott, who has won two league titles as head coach at Western Suburbs and another as an assistant during the past five years, will head Miramar's challenge next season after seriously considering giving the coaching game away.

"It will be a good new challenge and it's time for a change, really," said Calcott, who won the league with Porirua club Wests this season.

"I've been [at Wests] seven years, and I know the academy there wants to go in another direction by bringing in foreign coaches and foreign executive directors, so both parties thought it would be in our best interests to go our separate ways.

"I was actually looking at options outside the game but then this opportunity arose. Also, with the World Cup next year, it will be good to see how much money is pumped into the industry and what opportunities there are for coaches around that."

Miramar are the only other team to win the Central League during the past five years and Calcott admitted there would be some feeling when the big guns next clash.

"They have a good core group of players, which is something that attracted me. If I can just add three or four, it will be quite a tidy side," Calcott said.

"They are also trying to up the ante by adopting a community-type focus, which is something they haven't had in the past, so they're trying to move forward and get involved with the juniors and the schools, which is fantastic.

"It's certainly a big challenge at a club that has got so much history, but it's a great time to jump on board. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the club now."

Calcott said money was not a factor in the decision and that he would be getting paid "about the same amount" as he was at Wests.

He was coy on whether he'd be taking any of championship-winning Wests team with him to David Farrington Park, though some are bound to follow.

It is understood incumbent John Cameron, who took over from newly appointed Wellington United coach Graham Little at the start of last season, and Team Wellington coach Stu Jacobs were also interested in the Miramar job.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Wheronui   #1   11:39 am Dec 08 2009

Rumour is Calcott has been moonlighting as an actor in Peter Jackson's bigscreen version of Tintin. No digital wizardry required to make him look like the title character.

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