Narre Warren has locked in coach Steve Kidd for a third season, confident he’s the man to take the Magpies from the middle of the road to the promised land in the Southern League.
This year has thrown plenty of challenges at the premiership coach, but two consecutive wins have Kidd and the club optimistic about the end of the season, and into 2026.
It is currently his second season at the helm after he took the side to premiership glory in the Outer East League in 2024 – his first year in the role.
“I’m feeling excited, we have learned a lot from this year and are looking to build on that,” Kidd said.
“It’s a privilege and an honour, to get the opportunity to coach has been awesome … we are hoping to be bigger and better in 2026.”
The move to Southern has presented its fair share of challenges and only a few short weeks ago, there were even fears of relegation for Narre Warren.
But with two consecutive wins, the Magpies are now in seventh position and only six points behind fifth and sixth.
“(The role) probably comes with a bit more pressure to do well, from myself, and I was feeling it a bit up until a couple of weeks ago,” Kidd said.
“But to be reassured by the club is great … for them to come and ask me to do it again was awesome and made me feel like I’m on the right track.
“The club has been fantastic, Pete (Lindsay) has been there to support me all the way through … when we aren’t going well, it’s people asking how can I help rather than criticism.”
Kidd said it would’ve been nice to have some greater on-field success so far this season but hoped to continue building, with a few areas of focus for 2026.
“From a coaching perspective, (this season) gives us more to work around what we need to do to be better and match it against some of these top sides in the Southern competition,” he said.
“Hopefully we can add a couple of players, get the list fitter and more conditioned, also improve the video analysis and give players more reinforcement and better feedback.”
The former Narre Warren star, who played 259 senior games and won three premierships, said his aim was to build the next premiership team.
“I’m really excited for the challenge again and the players are as well … we are a good side, but we want to become a great side,” he said.
“We probably knew at the start of last year with the sort of players that we lost, that it was going to take a little bit of time to build what we thought was the next great Narre Warren side.
“We are halfway down that path and want to continue building and get there.”
President Peter Lindsay said there was no doubt that Kidd is the “right man for the job”, as they back him in for another year as coach.
“We are pleased with ‘Skidder’ and what he has brought, and continues to bring to the club,” he said.
“It has been a challenging year thus far, but we just see him as the ideal leader moving forward to consolidate this year and looking towards a big year next year.
“He’s got all of the players with him and just what he does around the place, he draws respect from everyone.”
