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In what is a massive coup for the club, the Tigers have been able to retain Kade Klemke as senior coach for 2015.
The announcement was made prior to First Grade training on Thursday 4 September in front of a large crowd of players, volunteers, coaching staff and supporters.
Kade’s commitment to the club will see him continue as playing coach, a position he has held since 2012 when he guided the NEAFL team to the Eastern Conference Premiership in his first year at the club.
The former Essendon listed player is coming off his best season with the Tigers, being named in the NEAFL competition’s team of the year.
“Queanbeyan gave me the opportunity to coach at a young age and I was pretty lucky to do that,” Klemke said. “Now I can repay that back to them by staying at the club.
“The club’s been great. We’ve got great volunteers and the guys we’ve got playing, it’s just really enjoyable to be around.”
“It’s very hard to leave the Queanbeyan footy club and still being able to coach, which I love.”
Kade was interviewed by both the Canberra Times and the Queanbeyan Age in relation to his appointment. Extracts of the published articles reinforced the reasons Kade has agreed to stay on.
“I probably didn’t have the time for NEAFL. With training and the possibility of being away Friday night and Saturday night every second week, it was going to be pretty hard with what I wanted to do.
Klemke shunned interest from both Ainslie and Eastlake to stay on at the Tigers next year. Having established the Lifecity Church in Queanbeyan earlier this year, Klemke decided he couldn’t balance his church commitments with playing in the NEAFL.
“In the end the decision to stay was more to do with what I’m doing outside of footy with the church I’m involved with,” Klemke said.
Klemke told The Queanbeyan Age the time and effort involved in the NEAFL was too much for him, and that he would look to switch focus to ‘Life City Church’, which he established this year, as well as starting a young family.
“Hopefully now I can do more stuff with the church and set up a youth group on a Friday night,” said Klemke.
“I’ll even consider setting up a drop-in centre in Queanbeyan as well.”
“I didn’t think if I kept playing NEAFL I’d have time to do stuff outside of footy, with all the extra travel, and with Queanbeyan going back into the Canberra competition, it frees up more time.”
Klemke said the culture and environment at the Tigers football club played a big part in him staying on as well, and hoped that his decision would help keep some of his NEAFL teammates at the club too.
Current AFL Canberra division one coach Paul Campbell will be senior assistant and Peter Jensen will continue as coach of the Rising Stars.
The club is working to make other coaching appointments in the near future.
Mark Armstrong, Adrian Pavese, Kade Klemke and Michael Goiser enjoy a laugh bfore announcing to the playing group that Kade had recommitted to the Tigers for 2015
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