Neil Balme ‘pretty sure’ he’ll accept director of coaching role in Collingwood restructure

NEIL Balme is “pretty sure” he’ll accept a position as director of coaching at Collingwood for next season despite Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allen officially being installed as football manager.

NEIL Balme is “pretty sure” he’ll accept a position as director of coaching at Collingwood for next season despite Graeme ‘Gubby’ Allen officially being installed as football manager.

Balme, previously head of football at the Magpies from 2014, has been offered athe new role in a restructure of the club’s football department.

Speculation has been rife Balme will leave Collingwood following his demotion and was spotted catching up with Lions chief executive Greg Swann in Brisbane as the Lions look to overhaul its football administration.

He has also been linked to a position at Richmond.

But Balme denied he had been approached about potential roles at rival clubs.

He says there was nothing sinister in his catch up with Swann, declaring he was in Brisbane with Magpies list boss Derek Hine to catch up with banned players Lachlan Keeffe and Josh Thomas.

“Last week Derek and I went up to Brisbane to see Lachie Keeffe and Josh Thomas, to see how they’re going,” he told SEN.

Neil Blame has been offered the director of coaching position in restructure of Collingwood’s football department.

“As we got up there, Swanny (Greg Swann) was around so we actually caught up, we had dinner with him in the place we were staying at. We had a quick dinner with he and ‘Schwabby’ (Peter Schwab) for old times sake more than anything else.

“Nothing to do with any of the thousands of things that are going on.

“It was purely ... you deal with other clubs and need to have good relationships with them so that’s what that was all about.”

Collingwood confirmed on Thursday Balme is weighing up his future at the club after officially announcing Allen as the new head of football.

The highly-respected administrator described the director of coaching position he has been offered as “exciting” but needs to weigh up if he fits the role.

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He said the position would involve working with all coaches at Collingwood — in the AFL, VFL, women’s league and with the club’s new netball team.

When asked whether he wants to stay at Collingwood, Balme said: “I’m pretty sure I do.”

“I can cope with that (a demotion).

“It’s a fantastic job, it’s very exciting if you take away the fact you’re not doing exactly what you wanted to do.

“I can keep working with the boys and keep working with Bucks (coach Nathan Buckley) in particular and we can give them some sort of direction, that’s the very exciting part of it.

Neil Balme says he’ll be able to continue to work closely with coach Nathan Buckley if he accepts the new role.

“From a club point of view, if you take away the personalities and all the emotion of it, it all (the restructure) makes admirable sense.

“You ask me do I actually agree with all that? I wouldn’t have necessarily done that personally but that doesn’t mean that’s not the right decision.”

But Balme admitted he “probably” would have preferred to be involved in the decision-making process for the restructure ather than bring informed of the changes and his new role.

“(But) we deal with what we deal with and we know footy clubs are dynamic places and it’s a high performance environment, you either succeed or you don’t get the results and something might happen,” he said.

“They might do something and you might not agree with it all but we’re left then with you work out where you fit in it. Are you happy to fit in it or you’re not and that’s what I’m working through.

“I’m pretty sure that I do (fit in). I’m pretty sure that’s what will come of it.”

Originally published as Neil Balme ‘pretty sure’ he’ll accept director of coaching role in Collingwood restructure