After a sub-par start to the 2011 Group 10 season, Wade Judd has stepped down as coach of St Pat’s and Chris Osborne will take over for the remainder of the season, starting with tomorrow’s game against Cowra at Jack Arrow Oval.
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Judd approached the club leaders after the 46-26 loss to Orange CYMS last Sunday and decided to give up the role to focus on leading by example on the field.
St Pat’s liaison officer Graeme Ward said that Judd had made the decision because of a number of reasons.
“Juddy stood aside because he has had dramas with work commitments and for personal reasons. On Sunday things weren’t happening and he said ‘I don’t think I can do this’ and that we should look at other avenues.
“Chris Osborne and Mark Elliott came up but they wouldn’t do it unless Juddy was comfortable with it, which he is.
“Chris will take over as captain-coach, he has played the last couple of games. Mark will continue to play reserve grade and he will be assistant coach.”
Ward said that Judd was comfortable reverting back to a role as a senior player.
“There’s no ill-feeling there. He will continue to play and pursue his rep career. He is still only young, he’s only 24 and it’s not an easy job to be a first grade coach, especially when you aren’t winning many games,” he said.
“He was man enough to say when the pressure got too much, but if he hadn’t done that, he still would have been coach.”
Osborne is concentrating on the task of preparing his team for the match against the Magpies rather than worrying about the past.
“It should be good. I’m looking forward to doing it with a good mate,” he said.
“The way the club has been performing has nothing to do with Juddy. It’s a mixture of things.
“The club has always had a good spirit and camaraderie, but a lot of people left the club at the end of last year and it’s a big challenge to get that back.”
Osborne believes that St Pat’s have the talent to be a real threat to the competition but they need to make some mental adjustments before they can achieve that.
“We need a change of attitude,” he said.
“We were very disappointing last week. The effort just wasn’t there. People went out with the wrong attitude and that is the biggest thing we need to work on.”
Even though Cowra are winless after four rounds, Osborne said he was expecting a tough game.
“They have only just been getting rolled. They haven’t been getting flogged so we are ready for a real fight,” he said.
St Pat’s take on Cowra Magpies at Jack Arrow Oval tomorrow from 2pm.
