Bell Park assistant and GDFL premiership coach Peter Riccardi will guide North Geelong in 2024
A former Geelong star and premiership coach has revealed why he has returned to marshall a GDFL cellar dweller.
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Everything changed in recent weeks for former Geelong champion and GDFL premiership coach Peter Riccardi.
Riccardi, who joined Bell Park as an assistant in late 2021 and coached Bannockburn for six years prior to that appointment, including a drought-breaking flag in 19, began contemplating a return to senior coaching mid-season.
He will guide North Geelong in 2024 after signing a one-year deal.
It comes amid the sacking of Magpies coach Michael Boothey mid-year and a tough 1-17 campaign in 2023.
With Riccardi’s nieces playing netball at North Geelong, he began conversations with club Magpies president Darren Vandenberg, leading him to consider: “Maybe there is something left in me”.
“At the start I wasn’t real keen on doing it,” Riccardi said, who also coached North Shore from 2010-13.
“The last couple of weeks the passion’s come back to take it on again.
“I’m not getting any younger, if I give it one more crack, the time’s right.
“We’ll give it one more crack and see how we go.
“‘Vanders’ has been really good communicating with me how they’re going and why.”
Riccardi admitted being an assistant coach had its advantages, almost able to leave his work behind after training or a match and largely avoid the “headaches” which come with the senior position.
“You can probably leave it behind when you get home,” he said.
However, Riccardi said Dragons senior coach James Saker “wasn’t surprised at all” that he was entertaining a position with the Magpies, believing the former Cat still had aspirations to take on a top job somewhere.
Riccardi, who has signed on for one year, will meet with the North Geelong players on Thursday night and to better understand the Magpies’ “DNA”.
“Hopefully it’s a two or three year thing,” he said of his coaching tenure.
However, Riccardi plans to identify a player or a budding young coach to hand the baton over to for a “seamless transition”.
“I think we can (improve) quicker than what the win-loss record says this year,” he said.
“You find out if you’re heading in the right direction pretty early on.
“It’s not going to be a quick fix.
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Originally published as Bell Park assistant and GDFL premiership coach Peter Riccardi will guide North Geelong in 2024
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