Will Bell has committed to the club for another year, with Brady Miller his assistant.

Aiden Lee has stepped down as the reserves coach and the role will be split between Brett Dowie, Nick McCartney and Matt Delzotto.

Football operations manager Delzotto said the club was excited Bell was coaching again.

“His ability to engage with the group and get the best out of players as well as his passion for the club spoke volumes of the person he is,” he said.

Bell has coached the senior team for the past two seasons.

“He is the kind of person we want around the club and leading the club and side. You couldn’t ask for a better person be in the role,” he said.

In 2018 Bell was named as AFL Western District coach of the year – an achievement Delzotto said recognised his hard work.

“The reward he is getting through the playing group and their commitment levels and effort is noticeable at a club level, but it’s fantastic to see others recognising the achievements as well,” he said.

Bell said the decision to stay on and coach another season was a “no-brainer”.

“We hit the key targets we were trying to achieve last season and saw an overall improvement,” Bell said.

“I saw enough improvement to warrant to go around again for another season and hopefully take it one step further.”

Assistant coach Miller joined the Lions at the same time as Bell.

“Brady has been fantastic both as a player and a leader. He is a great on-field leader, puts his head over the ball and leads by example,” Delzotto said.

Delzotto will also take the reserves coaching role alongside Brett Dowie and Nick McCartney.

All three coaches are new to senior coaching.

Delzotto said he had learned a lot from Bell.

“It has given me a really good grounding for the way I want to approach my coaching and what I can bring to the table. I have also coached juniors which will help me immensely as well,” he said.

“I will be coaching some of the same players I coached a few years again as juniors.”

Delzotto said he was excited about what the trio might achieve.

“Overall Brett (Dowie) has a wealth of experience and has played at high levels of football. He has done just about everything you can do at country level football. He gets along with the guys really well,” he said.

“Nick has been involved in the past in our junior program and assisting with coaching the juniors. He is really keen to take on the role with the younger guys within the squad.”

Delzotto said the group would focus on both on and off-field development.

“We are going in with a holistic approach. The idea of having three coaches is to make sure we are covering all players and making sure no one slips through the cracks,” he said.

“We want to make sure we give everyone the opportunity best suited for the individuals – from the players trying to get into the senior side to the juniors players still developing in the team.”

Bell said improvements can be seen across the club. 

“I can already tell this summer the recruiting has been a lot easier because people are looking at the club from the community saying, ‘this is the place I want to go play footy’,” he said.

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