Cobras find new coach for 2023 season

Jason Williams will lead Bacchus Marsh. Picture from Getty Images.

Bacchus Marsh has found its new coach, securing the services of a young leader with experience in the AFL Indigenous Talent Program and the VFL for the 2023 Ballarat Football Netball League season.

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Jason Williams will take the reins for the Cobras, replacing former player-coach Tom German who departed after three years in the role.

Having initially re-committed for another season earlier in the year, German left Maddingley Park last month and will now spend next season as coach for Spotswood.

Williams, 29, will serve as a non-playing coach and arrives with a background that includes serving as head coach of the Indigenous Talent Programs with the AFL, where he oversees under-18 programs for boys and girls from an Indigenous and multi-cultural background.

Williams was also the inaugural head coach of the Fitzroy Cubs - an AFL Indigenous and multi-cultural side - and an assistant with the Northern Bullants and the Calder Cannons.

As a player, Williams spent time with VFL power Port Melbourne and featured on the Foxtel show The Recruit, before a serious knee injury in 2018 saw him hang up the boots.

Tom German, middle, left Bacchus Marsh after three years as coach. Picture by Luke Hemer.

The Cobras' new coach joins a club in transition after the departure of German and a change in backroom staff.

Ricky Millar will step into the role of football director, returning to the club where he has played and coached since the late 1990s and was an assistant coach for the Cobras' 2016 premiership.

Millar re-joins from Melton, where he was an assistant coach for the Bloods' premiership this year.

Reigning club best-and-fairest and captain Jake Owen has re-signed for next season while Ryley Stuhldreier (South Barwon), Rex Hickman (Westmeadows), and Quade Butt (Hepburn) are confirmed departures.

Ryley Stuhldreier has left Bacchus Marsh for South Barwon. Picture by Adam Trafford.

The Cobras finished eighth last season - one win and 46 per cent off the pace - and have not played qualified for finals since 2018.

Williams is the fifth coaching change for the next BFNL season following the appointments of Chris Maple (Ballarat), Gary Learmonth (Redan), Jackson Merrett (East Point), and Luke Kiel and Michael Columbro (Sebastopol).

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