Jordyn Burke has called it a day as North Ballarat City senior coach in the Ballarat Football League.
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He has reluctantly stood aside after two years in the job owing to family and business commitments.
Burke, 30, said it had been a tough decision, but being a head coach at this level required a total commitment.
He said he had informed the club of his decision several weeks ago, but waited until after City’s season had come to an end before going public.
North Ballarat City has set a closing date of October 1 for senior coach applications.
Burke has been in the process of setting up his own electrical contracting business, which with family responsibilities has him sharing time between Ballarat and the Wimmera, where he is originally from.
He said if he was still living in Ballarat next year he would stay on as a player.
“It’d be great just to be able to play with this group as a teammate.”
Burke said he was disappointed he was unable to coach on next year and reap the benefits of the ground work he had put in with the development of a young list.
North put senior games into a number of under-18.5 players this year.
He believes City is well placed for big things after a couple of years of change, having arrived during a transition period for the club.
Burke led North Ballarat into the finals in his two seasons at the helm, with City scraping into the top six this year after a shocking start of one win in seven games.
He dismissed any suggestion that the issues surrounding Mars Stadium co-tenant North Ballarat Roosters during the year had had any impact on City. He said City had just kept its heads down and focused on its own on-field challenges.
Burke said it was getting more difficult to be a playing senior coach at BFL level.
He believes the dual role hurt both playing and coaching elements, and he would have liked to have had the opportunity of being a non-playing coach.