Ed Morgan thought he'd segue from years of schoolboy coaching into colts after taking up an invitation to coach our third grade backs.
With a business to run and a new baby daughter in the family, it was to be the perfect soft landing.
A phone call changed all that.
"I had been coaching at Joeys since 2015 and was actually going to pull the pin and not coach at all until I bumped into one of the Manly thirds boys I coached at Joeys and he said I should come down and coach their backs," he explained.
"That was the transition I wanted – nice and relaxed – and then the next thing I got a call from Chris Delooze asking me to interview for the head of colts job.
"That's how it all came about."
Morgan inherited a colts program high from the success of third grade's premiership win but down on confidence in the top grades.
He immediately went about restoring that self-belief and building camaraderie with a weekend camp in Forster over the off-season.
"And what I saw there gave me great confidence and belief in these guys," he said.
"When you go away with a bunch of under 20s and throw in a bit of turps you never know what might happen, but this bunch was so respectful everywhere we went.
"Any restaurant or club or café we visited commented on their behaviour and said what a lovely group of guys they were.
"We've got a really good bunch who are very connected and very cohesive."
And they can play.
"We've got the talent to play good, fast footy and put points on teams," Morgan said.
"We've got a pretty dangerous first grade team and that means the second and thirds are deadly as well."
As fate would have it, Morgan's first game is against his boyhood club Eastwood on Saturday.
It's where he played his rugby and the club the Morgan family has very close ties with.
"I think I was conceived on the hill at Millner," Ed laughed.
"It's unbelievable to get them first up. The family will be there in their blue and white but hopefully they're the ones buying the beers at fulltime."
