ORANGE Emus have been schooled by the saying ‘many hands make light work’ judging by their coaching appointments for the upcoming Blowes Menswear Cup season.

Emus have retained Matt Greatbatch and Trent Auld as first grade mentors and the co-coach structure has now been adopted in other grades.

Toby Tancred will be joined by Mitch Staniforth at the helm in second grade, while third grade will have Stu Brisbane, Derek Scott and Owen Thomas steering their charge to another grand final.

Colts also have Shane Udy and Jeremy Reay as coaches, giving all grades a shared coaching structure, while a coach for the Emus Chicks is yet to be finalised.

Greatbatch shared the first grade role with Auld last season and did the same in 2007 with Staniforth and he believes the co-coach situation makes life easier for all involved and allows the young coaching group to use their colleagues as sounding boards for new ideas.

“It just gives you another person to bounce ideas off,” Greatbatch said.

“With Mitch and Toby doing the seconds, they have plenty of experience and Mitch reads the game well and they’ll be able to bounce ideas off me and Trent.”

Emus have also elected a new president, with Al Hattersley stepping into the role.

Hattersley has previously served on the committee as treasurer and is the incumbent first grade hooker.

He is a fan of the shared coaching situation and hopes it can lead Emus to the Blowes Menswear Cup Club Championship next year.

Hattersley is also keen to see Greatbatch and Auld continue the work they have been doing with first grade as they showed promising signs towards the end of last season.

“Macca and Trent, we gained a bit of momentum and with a lot of players coming back, hopefully we can build on that momentum,” he said.

Emus are likely to commence training in about a month.