Greig intends to highlight what the Seagulls were able to do without an AFL partnership in 2015 from the outset of the Roosters’ pre-season training.

He said Williamstown’s grand final victory over the Hawthorn-aligned Box Hill Hawks showed what could be achieved by a stand alone team.

Greig has no doubt the Roosters have the core of a team which too can aim high.

And importantly he is confident of a high player retention rate to help deliver.

Greig said having been on the coaching panel for the past five seasons, a good relationship with the player group should put the club in good stead to retain most of the list. 

He said recruiting would be focused on topping up.

Greig said one focus would be on finding strong-bodied midfielders.

The Roosters are planning to take their recruiting campaign far and wide.

Greig said there were many quality footballers in country football, such as the Ballarat Football League, just looking for an opportunity at this level.

North Ballarat chief executive officer Mark Patterson said although the coaching appointment had only just been made, recruiting had been under way for some and well advanced.

“We’re well down the track with recruiting.

“We’ve already spoken with prospects,”

Patterson said recruiting would become clearer after the AFL national draft.

He indicated that there players with ties to North Ballarat who had AFL experience on the radar.

Louis Herbert (Gold Coast) and Essendon duo Kurt Aylett and Lauchlan Dalgleish are young former North Ballarat Rebels who have been delisted since the end of the AFL season.

With the head coaching role finalised, North Ballarat’s next task is to appoint a general manager of football  – a newly developed position.

Patterson said the Roosters hoped to have an announcement inside two weeks.

North Ballarat acting chairman Peter Carey said it was all about looking forward for the club now.

He said being a stand alone team in the VFL was a major challenge – one the Roosters were not shying away from.

Carey said the club was not only focused on next season. “We’re looking to 2017, 2018, 2019 and beyond in our planning.”

The Roosters unveiled Greig as head coach on Friday.

Patterson said the appointment reinforced the football pathway which existed in Ballarat.

Greig from Warracknabeal in the Wimmera joined the North Ballarat Rebels under-18s in 1996 and then progressed to the Roosters, where he became a three-time premiership player, captain, assistant coach while playing and after his retirement as a player, and now head coach as a graduate of the Gerard FitzGerald “academy of coaching”.