Davies turns down Magpies' coaching offer

BY MARTIN AGATYN

16 Nov, 2010 01:00 AM

THE Devonport Football Club coaching dilemma has deepened further, with former Ulverstone coach Troy Davies yesterday turning the Magpies down.

Re-appointed coach Errol Bourn announced his shock resignation last week, with the club immediately moving to secure the services of Coastal legend Max Brown, who also applied for the job when it was advertised in October.

With Brown ruled out due to medical reasons late last week after a recent health scare, attention turned to Davies, who met with club officials at the weekend.

However, Davies confirmed yesterday he would not be coaching Devonport in next year's Tasmanian State League, despite several sources informing The Advocate over the weekend he would take on the job subject to certain conditions.

The club is now in discussions with two other potential candidates, one of whom is believed to be former assistant coach Paul Atkins.

Davies said he retired as Ulverstone coach at the end of this season to spend more time with his family and it was also the main reason he could not accept the Devonport job.

"The timing is wrong - I would love to coach Devonport, but not now," Davies said.

"If it had been 12 months later, it might have been a different story," he said.

Davies said although he was taking a year out of senior coaching, he would still be involved in Coastal football, as an assistant coach to the regional under 16 team.

Devonport director of coaching Leon Perry said yesterday the Magpies were now in discussions with two other potential coaches - neither of whom was an original applicant when the position was advertised.

"We approached one and the other came to us after Errol resigned," Perry said.

Perry said the pair did not want to be identified at this stage, but one had experience coaching at intrastate representative level and the other at TSL level, leading to speculation one of them could be Atkins.

Atkins was an assistant coach to Bourn in 2009 and coached North Launceston in the TSL this year.

The Northern Bombers terminated Atkins' contract at the end of the season citing his inability to meet all its conditions.

Atkins lives at Wynyard and works at Rosebery and found it difficult to travel to all Bombers training sessions.

Bourn had still not returned calls from The Advocate as late as yesterday in relation to his reasons for quitting the club.