Ross, who currently holds the position of chair of the Committee For Ballarat has been involved in the Rebels program for many years and has been appointed into the role until at least October 31 this year.

Born and bred in Ballarat, Ross has previously been the under 19s assistant coach at the Rebels, the under 16s head coach and has more recently acted as the Rebels leadership coach working across the boys and girls program.

He also brings a wealth of business management experience with over 20 years as a senior manager at Mars-Wrigley before recently starting up a management consultancy where he works with not for profit organisations.

Ross paid tribute to the long-time talent lead Partington.

"It's really important to recongise what Phil has done," he said. "He's been a stalwart of the Rebels program for the past 15 or 16 years.

"The experiences of both the girls and boys program have been largely due to the time effort and commitment."

Ross said he was committed to seeing out the season, and will decide after October 31 whether he continues in the role on more full-time basis.

"I'll be picking up the activities that Phil has performed and I'll do that certainly through to the end of October, then we'll take a breath and see what it can look like beyond that," he said.

"My role will be to make sure the program continues in such good health and it's important that David Loader as the coach, all the support staff and everyone involved in the program do not feel the impact of Phil's departure.

"We'll get through to the end of the year and see where we are at."