No change is as good as any for the Tassie Tigers, with both men's and women's coaches re-signing for this year's HockeyOne season.
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Stephen McMullen and Luke Doerner were unveiled on Tuesday as the men's and women's coaches respectively in the lead-up to the second season of the national competition, which has been postponed twice.
The pair have varied contributions to Tasmanian hockey, with Damian Smith, the chief executive of Hockey Tasmania, pleased to announce McMullen and Doerner's appointments.
"Both these coaches now get the opportunity that they missed out on last year," he said.
"We were very keen to re-appoint them as they are two of the very best hockey coaches in Australia and are outstanding people to lead our Tassie Tigers program."
Melbourne-born Doerner has become an adopted Tasmanian after playing for the Tigers in the National Hockey League and coaching the side in the inaugural season of the HockeyOne in 2019.
His coaching career has also seen him mentor Australia and Belgium's national sides in his special field of drag flicking, with the Tigers and their junior academies his current passion.
"It was an easy decision to put my hand up again," he said.
"We did a lot of work obviously last year and unfortunately, [we] weren't able to play so we want to eventually get some games and hopefully this year is the year.
"The 18s group that's coming through is really strong and some of those girls will no doubt nominate and hopefully be a part of the process so it's exciting."
While he hasn't coached internationally, McMullen has a strong Tasmanian resume, leading the state's under-15 boys' side to a national silver medal in 2021 and winning the Premier League as coach in 2020.
His work leading into last year's postponed campaign was praised by Smith, with McMullen eager to continue building the momentum.
"The season was delayed a number of times, so we continued to train and it was a difficult process for the athletes as well as the coaches because it was a great unknown and we were working towards something that we didn't know what it was," McMullen said.
"We spent a lot of time working through what it was and it was disappointing that it didn't go ahead certainly and the high-performance programs haven't had championships or events for a long time so there's a whole group of under-21 players that have just missed two or three years of hockey.
"Now for these guys to get out and play some competitive matches and travel as a group will be key to their future and the future of the brand."
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