Highly-experienced coach Jade Selby appears a perfect fit for Perth Magpies.
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And the club clearly thinks so too, signing him to a three-year deal.
Selby will take over from playing-mentor Danny Bennett who has been at the helm for the past four years.
Selby, who was an assistant coach this year, said Bennett encouraged him to take the reins.
"To Danny's credit, he's the one that made this whole suggestion that I should take over and he still wants to be there and be a part of it," he said.
"He's done a really good job and I think he's ready to help out and push us to the next phase."
Bennett and Matty Eiszele will be Selby's assistants next year which is pleasing for the new coach.
"They're people you trust and we worked really well this year," Selby said.
"The relationships have improved as we got to know each other more during the year.
"I knew Danny but hadn't worked with him before so our relationship has improved.
"Matty and I went to high school together so we've known each other for a long time and got together at North (Launceston) again.
"Matty helped me out (as assistant coach) for that final year and it resulted in a premiership. So they're just guys you trust and clearly the club does too."
Selby's extensive coaching career included a 2016-19 stint in charge of North Launceston's TSL Development League side.
They defeated the Tigers in the 2019 decider.
He was also Hillwood's senior coach from 2009-11 and a bench coach at Lilydale in 2015.
But Selby is perhaps best known for his cricket involvement and coached the inaugural Tassie women's team for five seasons. They were known as the Roar but are now the Tigers.
He is also a nine-time Launceston Cricket Club A-grade premiership player and was captain and coach. He's in the Cricket North Hall of Fame.
Selby feels a three-year deal is a good fit despite some country footy coaches often renewing one-year contracts.
"You've got that realisation that you can really get into the work," he said.
"We're a middle of the road team and everybody wants to win the premiership next year but this isn't just a one-year thing.
"We want to make this club strong and that's going to take time."
He said while there would be some tweaks, the fundamentals would remain the same.
What are his hopes for the group?
"We've become better as the season's gone on definitely," he said.
"With the competitive nature of the group, we've really improved but we'll finish where we deserve to finish.
"We're going to have a real crack against East Coast (in round 18) we'll give them a real challenge I hope before they play their finals."
The Magpies would love to take the next step and Selby described the challenge ahead of them.
Ultimately he knows it will come down to hard work.
"There's no ceiling and unfortunately there's also no floor either," he said.
"So for next year, we just want to really improve. Do we want to play finals? 100 per cent we do. But the five teams in the finals this year are really good.
"I've been impressed with the standard football in this comp. The five teams that are there certainly deserve it and have played some really good footy. We know we've got to improve to knock one of them out. That's certainly our goal. Perth want to play finals."
Where does he feel the list is at?
"They're a young group and that's what's probably attractive about it," he said.
"It's a really young list that are really wanting to learn," he said.
"We've joked that we're an under-23 team or we have been.
"We don't want to go out and be detrimental to the playing group and get a heap of players. But a little bit of experience would be nice just to show the boys a bit more on-field as to how we go about it.
"It's a talented list. They're starting to show that talent now about positioning and roles and our game style."
The Magpies are sixth on the ladder with five wins and eight losses.
They host East Coast in their final regular season encounter of the year on Saturday.
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