COACH Matt Lantry hopes the formula that brought Greta Branxton their first Group 21 premiership can be replicated at Central Newcastle next season.
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The Knights NSW Cup assistant is expected to officially sign as the next Butcher Boys coach next week after the deadline for applications closes on Saturday.
Central president Bob Bradford announced yesterday that this year's coach, Paul Davis, and the club had parted ways by mutual agreement.
Lantry is untested in the Newcastle Rugby League, but the 29-year-old took Greta Branxton to a Group 21 grand final in 2008, before winning the premiership a year later.
After leaving the Colts in 2010, Lantry joined the Knights as an SG Ball assistant and then worked under Rick Stone in NSW Cup.
"I'm in a very familiar situation to when I first went to Greta Branxton," Lantry said.
"I'd like to think I'm older and wiser, and while I think we did a good job at Greta Branxton, I think I could do an even better job here with excellent support staff from a coaching perspective.
"There's some special memories there, and I'd like to think the formula I had at Greta Branxton and the success we had there, I'm going to be able to utilise it at Central."
Central have long been the underperformers of the Newcastle competition. Coaching instability and a poor attitude to training by some players have prevented the club from reaching their potential.
This season Central finished seventh with five wins, one draw and 10 losses.
They played well at times, beating top-two sides Wests and Macquarie, but those performance were too infrequent.
"It's bit of a culture change they require," Lantry said.
"When you win games it breeds that successful culture. That's part and parcel of it.
"I'm going in there with a completely open mind. I'm not just going to dip my toe in the water and see how we go. We're going to go as hard as we can to become a competitive force next year."
Bradford said he was highly confident Lantry would take the club in the right direction.
"Everyone who knows him says he's a good bloke and knows his stuff," he said.
"Hopefully he'll bring more professionalism and structure to the club next year."
