Banner crosses from Darley in the Ballarat Football Netball League, where he played nine games this season, kicking 12 goals.

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Ricky Ferraro will join Banner as his assistant coach in a playing-coach role.

"We've been in contact with him for a few years just through one of the guys at our club who knew his dad," president Jason Dooley told The Courier.

"We'd sort of just been touching base over that time.

"We had half-a-dozen applicants and then short-listed it ... he decided that it really was something that he wanted to get into, so he interviewed a couple of times for the job and got the nod."

Banner joins the club with a wealth of experience in some of Australia's top football competitions.

He was drafted to the Power from the Western Jets with pick 42 in the 2008 national draft, playing 19 AFL games across four years at the club.

He enjoyed some time with Woodville-West Torrens and Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League too.

Since his de-listing from Port Adelaide, Banner has featured for South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League, Williamstown in the Victorian Football League where he was a premiership player, Darley, Melton South and Old Melbournians in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.

Dooley said Banner was the right man to lead Hepburn's young list.

"Probably the direction we wanted to go was more a deciding factor for us," he said.

"Obviously Mitch's experience and all that sort of thing adds to it.

"We really wanted to go in a new direction, we've been really blessed with coaches from within the club and a wealth of coaching talent at the club for so long, but we felt it was time for some new blood."

Dooley said Banner will not player every game throughout the season, but will feature on field, especially come finals time if Hepburn is able to qualify for the top eight.

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