Tallon Smith

The Crookwell Green Devils have landed a major coup ahead of the 2026 George Tooke Shield season after securing the services of outgoing Goulburn coach Brian Gray as coach for the upcoming campaign.

A veteran coach with 25 years of experience working in the NRL world, Gray will return to the scene of his success in 2022, re-joining the Green Devils as they look to climb to the summit of the competition once again in 2026.

Speaking to Battlers For Bush Footy, Gray said that he is looking forward to the challenge of coaching the club again next season.

“It’s a new challenge, being a Green Devils local junior, albeit a long time ago, it’s my junior club and we had a bit of success back in 2022 and 2023,” he said.

“Getting back into Goerge Tooke, it’s a very competitive competition, and I’m looking forward to it.”

During his time up the road at Goulburn in the first division competition, Gray said that although results may not have gone as planned, he certainly learned a lot that he can take back to the Green Devils in 2026.

“I learned quite a bit in Goulburn, just getting back at the cutting edge of that elite standard footy, and probably doing some more contact work, and really focusing hard on that,” he said.

“Mitch Cornish also taught me a lot about elite halfback play.

“But footy’s footy, I haven’t got a specific area that I’m going to focus on totally at the moment, but doing some more work in that contact will probably be my main focus.”

As for how things are shaping up at Crookwell heading into the new season, Gray said that the fact they are an amateur club means he doesn’t really know what the make-up of the squad will be until new year rolls around.

“It’s a bit early to say just yet, because we are just a totally amateur club it’s hard to go about recruiting players, they don’t get paid, so you’re never really sure where it’s going to sit once pre-season starts,” he said.

“I did speak to a handful of the players and they were all keen to go around again.

“We have lost a couple, I think Steve Cummins has retired.

“He had a shoulder reconstruction, and he’s a big loss for us, that’s 20 off tries there every season, so we’ve got some big shoes to fill there.

“But I think we’ll be competitive, not making any outrageous predictions at this point in time, but if we can get in there and be competitive like they were this year that’s all you really need.

“A little bit of luck added in there and premierships, minor premiers, Grand Finals take care of themselves down the road.”