JOEL Griffiths plans to lean on Jets tactician Carl Robinson for guidance when the former A-League player of the year makes his first foray into coaching at Newcastle Olymic.
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Griffiths, 40, will take the reins of the traditional powerhouse from caretaker coach Alex Tagaroulias at the end of the current Northern NSW NPL campaign.
"I will be drawing on my experiences and what I heave learnt from other coaches," Griffiths said. "Guus Hiddinnk with the national team was the best. I also plan to get as much info as I can of Carl. He is very much an attention to detail coach. "
Griffiths, who has no senior coaching experience, was approached by Olympic a fortnight ago.
"I was a little bit taken back to start," he said. "The more I thought about the opportunity, the more appealing it became. To coach you need to be 100 per cent committed. I will make mistakes and hopefully I learn from them and turn into a better coach."
Griffiths, who is yet to obtain his B Licence, will be the third coach at Darling St in a year. Peter McGuinness resigned on the eve of the season due to work commitments after two years at the helm.
"I was booked into do my B- Licence but the course has been delayed due to COVID," Griffiths said.
"The PFA (players union) are doing a workshop with former A-League players in Sydney which will be good. Worst case and I have to wait, there is enough people at Olympic who have B licence."
Griffiths said it would important that he is "surrounded by good people".
"Out of the respect to the staff at Olympic, I will talk to them first," he said. "I have my ideas and methods of how to play. But if you don't have staff around you that can help implement it, then it will be hard. It is a vert competitive landscape. It will be a challenge but it's one I'm looking forward to."
Griffiths said he will not have any involvement this season other than looking at retention and recruitment.
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