The venue will be the Tathra Surf Club commencing at the leisurely time of 10am.

Coaches for 2005, are Lee Manning (Seniors) and Neil Taylor (Reserves).

Lee has taken over the top job from retiring coach, Mitch Pilbeam while Tuck has put his overseas jaunt on hold to return to assist Lee and coach the reserves.

It's a case of out with the old and in with the new as father time caught up with the SCAFL legend.

Mitch will ease into retirement having coached teams to three SCAFL flags and several grand final losses, never finishing out of the finals with either the Diggers or most recently Tathra.

Mitch has thrown his endorsement behind the club giving local Tathra player Lee his first coaching position despite the fact he is a Bombers fan.

Lee will bring new ideas to both the training track and game day and will be fully supported by an experienced and committed playing roster and committee.

Tuck's Two's wouldn't sound right if you took out the Tuck, so he just couldn't leave. Its good to see the ninth retirement has been put on hold.

After contacting chief AFL statistician John Harney, we have established that a player for the Boondah Earth Eaters in the Western Mining Belt League came out of retirement eleven times.

We were, however, told that Tuck had been officially registered as clear second place with his nine comebacks.

Another pleasing development in the off-season is an influx of players into Bermagui who will be joining the club for a kick.

This has led the club to investigate staging a game at the picturesque oval in Bermi, most likely against closest neighbour Narooma.

Such a fixture has the potential to become an annual event for the club, opening up another market and helping to promote AFL on the Sapphire Coast.

Also just around the corner is the SCAFL eleven's competition, hosted this year by the Sea Eagles.

Now in its sixth year, the pre-season hit out is a great day to get the club's together and see who can stop Lakes Entrance from taking the title.

Tathra came agonisingly close last year when a freak wind gust blew the ball away from the goal posts and they lost by a point after the siren.

So keep this day in mind.

Don't forget to come along long this Sunday as the best little footy club around heads into 2005 with plenty of good times ahead and the search for another flag begins.