Mitchell Allgood set to lead Magpies on return to First Grade

The former NRL fan favourite, who will be coaching alongside Adam Hayburn, formed a connection with the Magpies quite by chance through committee member, Joe Rogers.

"Funnily enough, I bumped into him at a school rugby league clinic that we were both attending and got talking," Rogers said.

"We struck up a bit of a relationship from there, and then when we were on the hunt for a new coach, I thought of him.

"He wasn't particularly interested at first, but with no reason to do so he started helping us out by ringing a few of the contacts he had. Eventually something changed for him, and he came back and said he was happy to take it on."

Allgood's professional rugby league career began in 2011 with the Parramatta Eels. He played 70 games over four years for the club, before moving to the UK to play for the Hull Kingston Rovers.

Over the next four years, he played for the Rovers and, briefly, moved to Wakefield Trinity for one season, before returning to the NRL with St George Illawarra in 2018.

After one more short stint in the UK in 2020, Allgood retired from rugby league and returned to Australia.

His appointment is a boon to the Magpies, who have dedicated themselves to playing in the Group Seven First Grade competition this season after choosing not to do so in 2021 due to a lack of numbers.

"We're going to be in First Grade, no matter what," Rogers said.

"It doesn't matter what the numbers turn out like, we're making a full commitment to First Grade this year.

"It's a heartbreaking thing for a 114-year-old club like us to not put in a First Grade side. It's only the third or fourth time it's happened, so we made the commitment last year when we got an idea what numbers we were going to get, that no matter what, we'll be playing First Grade footy again next year."

With the next season or two set to be a rebuilding period for the club, Rogers said the focus will be on setting a foundation based on the local talent.

"Our focus this year, and Mitch's focus as well, is to really try to develop the young core of local players we have," he said.

"We won't look to bring in too many outsiders, and purely from a local playing group point of view, I think Mitch is going to attract a few of them back.

"It's early days, but numbers are looking pretty strong for this year."

The full coaching staff announced by the club is as follows:

Club training will get underway on Tuesday, February 1, from 6pm at the Berry Showground. For more information, feel free to contact the Magpies through their Facebook page.

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