Storm fans will know of him, and regard him highly, but the time has come for him to move on – with the Melbourne Storm High Performance Manager Kim Williams, deciding to take up a 2-year head coaching position with Intrust Super Cup side, the Mackay Cutters.
The move is likely to eventuate in early October, in which Williams will oversee his first training session of the Cutters as head coach.
Williams is no stranger to what it means to be a coach and in an important position – having started with the Victorian Rugby League has a High Performance Manager, as well as overseeing representative programs for the VRL, as well as for the Melbourne Storm Academy.
He has also coached the Melbourne Storm U18’s SG Ball team in the past.
Glenn Ottaway, who is the Cutters Chief Executive, said that it was Williams’s four-year tenure with the Storm, a role that has seen him bring up several talented players through the ranks and nurture them, that saw him rewarded with the opportunity to be a head coach.
“If you’re at a place like the Melbourne Storm, where arguably their club culture and level of professionalism within that organisation is among the best in the world and you’ve got a guy applying who has been in that system for a fair while you’re assured you’re getting someone who has the attributes and work ethic you look for in the job,” Ottaway said just hours before the Cutters’ match against Rockhampton.
“His background is very heavily based around development; his primary role will be to coach the Cutters but his signing means we can also develop coaches and our younger players in Mackay as well.
“He has been working in Victoria and has gotten some really positive results working in a non-league environment there, so we definitely got the man we wanted.”
With the Cutters priding their team and organisation on professionalism, Ottaway believes that Williams can carry that trait on, much like outgoing coach Anthony Seibold had, over the past 2 years.