Ararat Eagles make moves ahead of the 2020 season signing Brett Sladdin as senior coach and Naish McRoberts and Tom Taurau as assistant coaches

Brett Sladdin was named as the incoming senior coach with former Stawell Warriors and former Ballarat Rebels players Tom Taurau and Naish McRoberts as assistants. Boosting up the team next season will be Taurau's younger brother Jack, also a former Warrior and Rebel.

Zac Jenkins has also added his name to the list, a former Eagle but spent some time away from the club.

McRoberts and the two Taurau brothers played junior football at the Ealges and have now returned to the club.

The Ararat Eagles hosted several crisis meetings before the 2019 season, announcing the lack of numbers to field football sides.

Sladdin said he felt compelled to "jump on board" after talking to the three players and their vision for the club.

"I haven't been involved for a number of years but have had coaching roles at the Eagles in the past," he said.

"After speaking to a number of people we thought we would get together and see if we could help out a bit.

"Last season was disappointing for the club. For all the people who were there and all the hard work they were doing, they weren't getting much support."

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Sladdin said the two Taurau brothers and McRoberts were heavily involved with the recruitment process.

"We've been recruiting for the past month or so," he said. "We're going pretty hard at it. A lot of people are talking about the club and we certainly have the interest out there."

Sladdin said although the club has a long way to go in terms of re-building a senior football team, there were some positive signs starting to unfold.

"The three boys know a lot of decent footballers and have played against them before," he said. "We're starting from scratch again. We're pretty much looking for a whole senior team.

"We've actually had people start calling us. I don't believe that would have happened the past few years. I think it would have been a few people doing the hard yards trying to find 40 players each week.

"We want to get more people around the club. I know winning games is going to do that so hopefully, we can be competitive from the start next season and everything will grow from there."

The Eagles went through 2019 without winning a game and made news nationwide with a 509-point defeat at the hands of eventual premiers Great Western.

It was that game, when Jackson Taurau and McRoberts intially discussed the opportunity to come "back" to the Eagles.

"It's been a home club and we played our junior football here our whole lives," Taurau said.

"We have a strong family connection with the club. My father and Naish's father had done a lot of hard work at this club and we wanted to try and help get the club going the right way.

"We didn't plan on coming back until we were in our late 20's but talks got serious after the game against Great Western."

READ MORE: Great Western receives backlash from football community after thumping Ararat Eagles by 509 points

Taurau said initially his brother Tom wasn't part of initial talks.

"We had a conversation with Nats (club president) and realistically if we didn't get the help we didn't know where the club would be," Tom Taurau said.

"If the club went into recession there were doubts if it would be able to come back out again.

"It's an opportunity to get the club moving forward and make it a place people want to come and play football and netball and support."

The Eagles are anticipating to start preseason on November 20.

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