The St George Illawarra Dragons have confirmed two key coaching appointments for the 2023 season.
Bronx Goodwin will now coach the St George Illawarra Dragons Knock-On Effect NSW Cup side. Aaron Hertsch will take over the Jersey Flegg team after two years coaching the Illawarra South Coast Dragons U16s Andrew Johns Cup side.
A former Dragons player in 2011-12, Goodwin has seen plenty of good local juniors coming through in his time in the Illawarra and is excited to work with some of them again.
"Since retiring and even when I was playing with the Dragons I lived down here at Shell Cove so I've been in the region, watching the footy and seeing the young kids come through," he said.
"A lot of those kids came through my area so I know them all quite well."
Hertsch has risen through the local ranks after commencing his coaching career in 2017 with Illawarra's Western Suburbs Juniors as reserve grade coach before moving to first grade the following year.
He then coached the Illawarra South Coast Dragons Andrew Johns Cup (Under 16’s) in 2021 and 2022, making the preliminary final this season and unfortunately losing the 2021 decider. He also coached the state under-16s Country side in 2022 after being the assistant coach in 2021.
Hertsch has lived in the Illawarra for 19 years and played over 200 grade games for Western Suburbs, with his last game in 2018.
"My expectations are high and I'm just excited to get started," Hertsch said.
"I want to work pretty closely with the assistant coaches of the NRL side and help to implement the Dragons systems through all the grades."
These appointments follow the recent announcement that Ben Woolf and Ryan Carr will be Anthony Griffin's NRL assistant coaches while Willie Talau and Russ Aitken have moved into new roles as pathway and development coaches.
