By James Bresnehan, Mercury
A TUG of war over Glenorchy’s TSL premiership coach Aaron Cornelius should be settled next week, with the Magpies hopeful he will remain at KGV and the Simon Black academy confident he will join as its coach in the state’s South next year.
Magpies president John McCann said negotiations were ongoing with Cornelius and he was confident “Ace” would be the club’s head coach again, possibly under a dual role with the Black football academy.
McCann also hopes the former Brisbane Lions star’s academy can be based at KGV, which is one of the state’s best football facilities thanks to extensive modernisation over the past two years.
A spokesman for the academy was confident Cornelius would be their man, but the Magpies hope the status quo is maintained at the club.
“We are finalising negotiations with Aaron and most likely Aaron will be coaching Glenorchy seniors in the TSL next year,” McCann said.
Black is also playing an active role in finding a replacement for North Launceston’s coach Zane Littlejohn.
While Cornelius’ role is yet to be finalised, the northern academy coach would also be North Launceston’s new senior TSL coach.
Having taken the Bombers to three consecutive grand finals and back-to-back premierships in 2014-15, Littlejohn vacated the post last month to become Brisbane’s development coach next year under fellow Tasmanian and Lions’ new senior coach Chris Fagan.
North Launceston had 12 applications for Littlejohn’s job. A shortlist of three has been compiled, one of whom is an internal applicant. The other two come directly from the AFL — a player who retired at the end of this season and the other in a coaching role at an AFL club.
Bombers president Thane Brady said the two interstaters would be flown in over the next few days for a Cook’s tour of the club and to meet key stakeholders.
“This time around we’ve had applications from the SANFL, VFL, players retiring out of the AFL as well as high-quality assistant coaches.
“We are now a club with a development program where guys can come in and get seen by the AFL.”
The Tigers will announce their new coach on Monday.