Leichhardt appoints new Premier League head coach

Leichhardt’s FNQ Premier League team will have a new head coach but the band will be sticking together as they chase an improved 2021 campaign.

LEICHHARDT’s FNQ Premier League team will have a new head coach but the band will be sticking together as they chase an improved 2021 campaign.

After spending the past four seasons as an assistant coach, Karl Bennett will assume the role of head coach, with Stacey Fittock to move to a technical director role.

Bulls' Dylan Cummings and Lions' Dan Ting. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE

Fittock was slapped with a hefty suspension after comments he made during the FNQ Premier League preliminary final last year, with the coach shown a red card in the final few minutes of their loss to Mareeba Utd.

With that suspension to last more than half the season, it opened the door for Bennett to step into the head coach role - and it’s opportunity he’s waited for.

But the successful coaching team of Fittock and Bennett will pool their talents on their training pitch with an aim to take Leichhardt back into the top four and break Edge Hill United’s stranglehold on the silverware in FNQ.

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Working alongside Fittock and with a team which, if it stays similar to last year, should again be a contender, will give Bennett the perfect introduction to head coaching in the Premier League.

It’s the long-term goal of coaching development which is at the forefront of the move, and he will put the lessons learned in those four years as an assistant coach and the few seasons leading reserve grade into practice.

“We are doing a similar thing (to last year), where we’ll prepare the team together,” Bennett said.

“But this is part of my development as a coach to take control to the team.

“We are trying to keep the squad together. I’d say last year was probably the first of a two-year plan but we probably went a bit better than we expected.

“We’re happy with what we’ve got in the team so far.”

Coach Karl Bennett. PICTURE: BRENDAN RADKE

The Lions will need to replace at least two key positions after defender Cristian Couto Calderon moved to Marlin Coast to be their Premier League coach and technical director, and superb goalscorer Dan Ting’s move back to Malaysia.

Bennett said the club had picked up a few recruits who were playing in the FNQ Fives competition at The Grounds, though a lot of their efforts had been in retention.

Bennett’s first assignment as the Premier League team’s head coach will be the club’s FFA Cup clash with Southside Comets on March 6.

That game will be the third in a triple header at White Rock, as Innisfail United face Stratford in the FFA Cup and Kappa Women’s Super Cup before the Lions take the field.

The FNQ Premier League is scheduled to kick off on the weekend of April 10-11.

■ Cairns Colonial Club have agreed to become the naming rights sponsor of Football Queensland North’s new Junior Premier League.

The partnership formalises a relationship which has built over the years.

The JPL will be open to the seven premier clubs, with a full home-and-away season to be played from juniors through to the senior teams.

It will also give the region’s best referees the chance to control higher-quality games, more often, which officials hope will aid in their continued development.

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Originally published as Leichhardt appoints new Premier League head coach