IT'S family time for premiership winning Manning Ratz rugby union coach Jake Maurirere.
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He's stepped aside, with the club appointing Jake Wheeler and Danial Stone as coaches for the 2022 season.
"My kids are getting older now, they're 9, 6 and 5 and they're starting to play sport,'' Maurirere said.
"I want to spend more time with them. Coaching takes up a lot of time, you're the first there at training and the last to leave and then there's time spent putting together game plans. When we play away I can be gone for most of the day.''
Mauriere is also making a career change. He's hoping to get into community service, working with youth.
The Ratz are in good health. Under Mauriere's coaching the club won the Lower North Coast premiership in 2020 - their first - while they were club champions and minor premiers last season.
In the last two years we've won a premiership, two minor premierships and the club championship
- Jake Maurirere
Manning were to host the grand final against Forster-Tuncurry, but the game didn't go ahead after the State was plunged into lockdown on Saturday, August 14. The grand final was scheduled for August 21. Eventually the decision was made to scrap the game when the lockdown was extended.
"That was disappointing,'' Maurirere said.
"I thought we should have been awarded the premiership because we finished minor premiers. But in the last two years we've won a premiership, two minor premierships and the club championship.''
The Ratz stormed through 2020 with an unbeaten record before downing Wallamba in the grand final at Taree Rugby Park. While that was an accomplishment, Maurirere thought this season's effort more than matched it, even if they didn't get to defend their title.
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The Ratz were bolstered by a number of rugby league players in 2020 looking for a game when the Group Three competition was suspended due to the pandemic. Once they became accustomed to the rules, the Ratz became a formidable combination.
"We lost most of them when Group Three started up again this year, so we virtually had to start from scratch,'' Maurirere pointed out.
"We had to find players to fill the gaps and we managed to do that and put together a strong side. We showed that we could still win matches, even without the league guys.''
Maurirere will be a regular at Ratz home games and said he will always be available should the incoming coaches want to run ideas past him.
"And in a few years if the opportunity arises I'd like to get into coaching again,'' he said.
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