TNL: Cavs stalwart puts hand up for coaching role

A Cavaliers stalwart will juggle on and off court responsibility this season after accepting an assistant coaching role with the TNL club. Some familiar faces have also taken the under-19 reins. Get the details here.

Cavaliers stalwart Shelby Miller will be a playing assistant coach for the TNL team next year. Picture: Linda Higginson

Cavaliers coach Katie O’Neill is optimistic Shelby Miller could become the next player to graduate to the coaching ranks after the TNL club announced its new structure this week.

O’Neill will be solo head coach in her second year after sharing the role with Lou Carter last year, when the Cavaliers lost the grand final to fellow Launceston outfit the Hawks.

Experienced midcourter Miller has been captain in recent seasons, and will graduate to a playing assistant coach role.

Lynda Colgrave, who guided the under-19 team to back-to-back flags this year, is the open side’s mentor coach.

Her replacements as under-19 coach are former opens coaches Dan Roden and Dannie Carstens, who will share the role, with Hayley Bowen their assistant.

O’Neill is a former Cavs player, like her opens coach predecessor Carstens who was last year inducted into the Tasmanian Netball Hall of Fame.

She said appointing Miller as an assistant coach has been done with succession planning in mind.

Cavaliers coach Katie O’Neill with player and daughter Paige. Picture: Jon Tuxworth

“It’s about finding people we could start developing as coaches, looking further down the track,” O’Neill said.

“Shelby at one time in the future will retire from playing, people like myself and Danni Carstens and Lynda aren’t going to be around forever.

“It’s forward thinking in finding out who’s the successor of that coaching role. It’as always been important to the Cavs to have good quality coaches, and to put the time in to develop and mentor coaches.

“Being a past athlete you understand the culture of the club and where the club wants to be, the club’s expectations. You’re already aware of that, so it’s about developing yourself as a coach.

“It’s something she (Miller) wants to do to see if she might like it, and maybe put her hand up to do it in the future.

Cavaliers coach Katie O'Neill with outgoing co-coach Lou Carter and former mentoring coach Dannie Carstens. Picture: Supplied

After a progression as under-19s coach and an opens assistant, O’Neill is confident she’s ready to be the solo head coach as they look to end the Hawks’ streak of three straight flags.

They will look to do so without Zoe Claridge and Keely Atkinson, who retired after last year’s grand final.

“I’m confident in how I’ve progressed and the support I’ve had with mentor coaches,” she said.

“I’m excited to work with Shelby, she’s got huge knowledge as a current athlete. For her to have an opinion and more say at training will be really good for her, and for me as well.

“With Shelby being a playing assistant coach, it’s good to have someone like Lynda there with another set of eyes on game day. When you’re playing it’s not easy to see everything going on.”

It’s understood the 2025 TNL season will be longer than this year, which wrapped up in late July.

“This year was just way too short, and really disrupted with byes and the representative calendar,” O’Neill said.