Hopetoun Giants stalwart Anthony Schache will have big shoes to fill when he replaces outgoing Giants coach Mikayla George.

"I'm getting excited about it," Schache said of his appointment.

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"I got goosebumps when they asked me. I'm looking forward to it."

Schache's association with sport in the area stretches back to the Hopetoun Football Netball Club where he was a longtime footballer and spent 20 years on the committee. He also held roles such as junior football coordinator, reserves football coach.

For those wondering he also has a significant background in netball. His two daughters have played A Grade for the Giants and he also coached the last two years of A Grade netball at Hopetoun.

Despite being thrilled top coach again, Schache said coming back was not always the plan.

"I didn't have ambitions to coach netball again, I thought that was past me," he said.

"But when they rang me I got a bit excited. I'm a bit older, I've just become a grandfather so I'm sorta looking for different challenges."

"I'm semi retired and looking for ways to get out of my comfort zone and develop relationships and make new friends."

Under George this year the Giants were a force to be reckoned with, only losing one game - to Dimboola by one point.

Despite their 2021 record Schache says he isn't going in with any expectations.

"That's not the way I coach," he said.

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"The focus will be on playing the best netball that we possibly can as a group.

"Obviously it'd be lovely to play finals and to go deep into finals but that's certainly not my focus as a coach.

"It's all about preparing as well as you can and playing the best possible netball that you can taking into account that a lot of the players have other things that are probably more important than netball."

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