The Kurri Kurri Bulldogs have appointed assistant senior coach Ron Griffith as coach for 2017.
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Bulldogs secretary Jeff Polglase confirmed Griffiths had been selected from four applicants including current senior coach Phil Williams.
Polglase said the coaching selection committee had decided Griffiths, who coached the Maitland Pickers in 2012 after moving from the Bulldogs, was the best applicant to take the Kurri Kurri forward.
He said Williams, who has steered the Bulldogs to fifth place and a likely finals berth this year, would remain in the top job and Griffiths would serve as his assistant.
“Both Phil and Ron were very professional in the way they took the decision on the coaching job for 2017,” he said.
“After discussions we felt that both men should stay in their current roles.”
Kurri Kurri appointed Williams before the 2013 finals to replace playing coach George Ndaira who took the team to the grand final, which they lost to Western Suburbs, after a barnstorming finish to the season.
In strikingly similar circumstances, the Bulldogs are on the cusp of the finals after a mid-season resurgence in which they won five straight games including wins against last year’s grand finalists Lakes United (twice) and Macquarie Scorpions, before falling to Wests on Sunday.
