The Weston Bears are set to announce their first grade coach for next season after meeting with players tonight.
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The gathering of players is being organised in the wake of Steve Piggott’s sacking on the weekend with the club expected to name a replacement at the meeting.
“We are trying to piece together a players meeting for Wednesday night,” Bears football manager Shane Johnson said.
“If we can get that going we will go from there.”
The club’s administrators met on Monday night to discuss coaching structures for 2015 with a first grade appointment the highest priority.
Details of any decision made by Weston have not been released but Johnson indicated he would like to inform the playing group first.
Players were told of Piggott’s axing on Saturday night after losing 2-1 to Queensland side Palm Beach and being knocked out of the inaugural National Premier League.
This came a week after being beaten 2-0 by Lambton in the Northern NSW first grade grand final, which was only their second defeat during the second half of the season.
The Bears finished second on the competition ladder and narrowly missed the minor premiership in the final round when Newcastle Jets Youth equalised with seven minutes remaining.
It was Piggott’s first year at the helm of Weston, who had finished fifth the year before.
The call to part ways with Piggott, a former head coach at Maitland, was based on off-field fallouts at the club rather than on-field performance.
The next Bears coach will be the sixth used by Weston in the last decade with Darren Elkin (2011-2013), Michael Boogaard (2007-2010), Steve McIntosh (2006) and Trevor Morris (2002-2005) having been in charge since 2002.
Johnson said the incoming coach would need to have a B-License to fulfil FFA requirements.