WRFL: New Newport coach Josh Russo anticipates changes

It’s been a big week of change at Newport with a new senior coach named and the club unveiling its new nickname. Here’s what they’ll be called.

It’s been a week of change at Newport.

The Western Region Football League has a new senior coach — Josh Russo.

Now they’ve got a new nickname.

The Panthers.

The club announced on Thursday announced it would be known as the Newport Panthers from the 2023 season.

They’ll keep the same club colours and song as part of the changes but will have a new logo.

“We are excited to announce that the Newport Football Club will have a different look with our logo moving forward,” the club said in a social media post.

“As is the norm with football clubs, all teams have a nickname. After much deliberation and (sic) opinion, we will now be known as the Newport Panthers.”

New senior coach appointed at Newport

Sometimes it’s a matter of timing and that’s the case for Newport’s new coach.

Josh Russo has stepped into the top job at the Western Region Football League Division 2 club replacing Ziggy Kadour for the 2023 season.

For the past three seasons, Russo had served as Kadour’s assistant and initially was unable to given his commitment to building the platform the pair had established.

But that has all changed with the former Altona and Coburg Districts mentor unveiled as the club’s new coach last week.

“While I initially wasn’t intending on coaching in 2023, sometimes things happen for a reason and in the end everything aligned,” Russo said.

“I’m looking forward to continuing on the work of the last couple of years because I think there are some exciting times ahead.

“The group of lads there are super impressive. Unfortunately last season we probably left our run a little bit too late in the season to play finals.

“But there were some good signs for us to build on and I’m looking forward to getting to work with this group.”

Kadour isn’t set to be lost to Newport completely with the former coach stepping into the president’s role replacing Marwan Abou-Zeid.

And with Russo now able to put his own imprint on the team, he said changes are set to be on the way.

“There won’t be wholesale changes because Ziggy has done a terrific job in getting the club on the right path the last few years,” he said.

“I think we’ll try and add a little bit more professionalism to the group though. We came back a little bit later last season and there were obvious reasons for that but it probably hurt us a little in the long run.

“From a playing group point of view, we’re hopeful of bringing everyone back and adding a couple of more players. The guys we recruited last season had a really positive impact on the group.”

Russo spoke highly of the youngsters who could have an impact on the senior side last year after Newport’s under 18s narrowly fell short in tge grand final.

They had finished the season as minor premiers.