“First and foremost he’s a great coach,” he said. “We didn’t hire a great player to potentially be a coach.

"We looked at his coaching ability and we’ve had the luxury of seeing it first hand in the last eight years as an assistant coach to our A-League team. We knew we had very good young coach on our hands.

“What we needed to do was make sure he was the right fit for the club at the right time which was why we conducted the search we did.

“The good news was that we went through that process and still arrived at the same decision – and Steve was the right man for the job."

But while Corica was hired because he was the best man for the job, Townsend did admit that keeping senior players involved after they retire is one of the club’s strategies.

“A football club is one big family,” he said. “People evolve through their careers and part of that is a professional football career and then there is also a career beyond that.

“We like to think that our club has reached that level of maturity that we are able to think about those things when we make decisions.

“We do look at continuity and how we can bring people through the club and give them opportunities after football.

“We do that in the coaching ranks and also the administration side of the club.”