Rick Mensink given full-time coaching role at Richmond SC replacing Grant Brebner

Interim manager Rick Mensink has been handed the full-time coaching role at NPL1 club Richmond until the end of the season.

Richmond Soccer Club boss Rick Mensink. Pic: Supplied.

TO SAY Rick Mensink has had a baptism of fire since taking over as interim boss at Richmond Soccer Club would not do his contribution to the club justice.

Mensink inherited a National Premier League 1 team low on confidence but high on talent from former Melbourne Victory midfielder Grant Brebner, who resigned as coach in April.

The former Richmond under-20 coach has transformed the club’s senior team into one of the division’s most formidable outfits.

Richmond has strung together a three-match winning streak ahead of its match against Brunswick City on Friday, dropping just two games in Mensink’s time in charge.

The 52-year-old said he was excited by the challenge of his first head coaching role.

“We’ve had a bit of a turnaround, that’s encouraging,” Mensink said.

“When you’ve got the full support of the committee, the players and other support staff it makes for a very pleasant environment.”

Mensink has previously served as an under-21 coach at Box Hill United.

He said he wanted Richmond to play with flair and develop a style to be competitive in both NPL1 and the NPL in future years.

“Credit to Grant, I thought he did a superb job,” he said.

“He had the guys 110 per cent committed and when I came in they were fit, they were committed but probably lacked a bit of belief.

“There’s nothing like a couple of good results to turn the belief around.”

Mensink described his first week as the club’s full-time boss as one of the biggest in its history, with Richmond hosting Sunbury United in the Dockerty Cup Round of 16 tonight.

If it can progress through to the competition’s semi-finals, Richmond will earn a place in the FFA Cup where it could be pitted against A-League teams.

Mensink has taken Richmond from ninth to seventh since taking charge, but the club is just five points behind second-placed FC Bulleen Lions.

He said he was interested in continuing in the top job beyond 2014.

Richmond will back up from its Dockerty Cup match on Friday night when it hosts Brunswick City at Kevin Bartlett Reserve.

The match kicks off at 8.30pm.