Ross McQueen will achieve a long-held ambition to coach the Claremont Colts side when he takes over the preparation of the club’s colts squad for pre-season training next month.

He was appointed the coach of the colts this week to replace Ben Dyer, who has been recruited by North Melbourne as the club’s development manager.

The 44-year-old McQueen appeals as a perfect fit as the Tigers Colts Coach and mentor of the club’s teenagers as they seek to improve their skills and knowledge of the game in the quest to develop into league footballers.

He has had a lengthy and distinguished association with Claremont. After a playing career with the Subiaco Colts and Reserves, the Wembley Amateur Football Club and Mines Rovers in Kalgoorlie, McQueen’s first association with the Tigers was in 2003 when he was a runner for Simon McPhee’s Reserves side.

He was an assistant coach to McPhee for the Tigers colts in 2007 and 2008 and a League Assistant to McPhee in 2009. And for the past four years he has been the coach of the club’s Reserves squad and led the side to a hat-trick of premierships --- in 2010-11-12.

Claremont ended the 2013 season without coaches in place for the club’s League and Colts side for 2014. The appointment of McQueen for the Colts position now leaves a vacancy for the coach of the Reserves side.

Dean Horsington, Claremont’s Football Operations Manager, is busily going through all the procedures to find the best men available for the vacant coaching positions. The League position became vacant when 2012 Premiership Coach Marc Webb was appointed as a Development Coach by the Fremantle Dockers.

Horsington is confident that the club will be able to fill the League and Reserves coaching positions within the next couple of weeks.

Dyer, who was at the helm when Claremont beat South Fremantle in the grand final at Subiaco Oval last month to win the Colts premiership, will be sadly missed. He goes to the Kangaroos with the best wishes of the club. The Tigers also wish Webb all the best in his move to the Dockers.

As usual, several young hopefuls from Claremont’s country zones of the Kimberley and Great Southern are planning to move to the city to take part in pre-season training programs and the Tigers are anxious to hear from anyone who is willing and able to provide board and lodging for some of these youngsters.
 
By Ken Casellas