But the new Parkes captain-coach is adamant he’s not only capable of continuing on the brilliant work of club legend Dennis Moran, but adding to it to ensure the Spacemen continue to be a Group 11 force.

Prout was announced as the club’s first grade coach on Friday night, joining George Wright Junior (reserve grade), Luke Clarke (under 18s) and the league tag team of Joe Spicer and Natalie Gardiner as the club’s coaches for 2018.

It’s Prout’s first top grade coaching gig since looking after his hometown team of Gilgandra in 2011 and 2012.

“I’ve been keen to get back into coaching,” he said.

“I think I’ve got a slightly different approach to Dennis and Patty (Rosser) before that. They’ve had success in their own right. And I’ve picked up some ideas off them and I have some of my own as well.

“I hope to bring a lot of fun to training and hopefully be successful as well.”

Prout has been a regular with the Spacemen since finishing up his time with the Panthers in the Castlereagh League.

He’s hoping to strengthen the club’s defence and give the Spacies a tactical edge in the new year.

“I like the tactical side of things and designing plays,” he said.

“I’ll be looking forward to implementing a structure and look to get the boys working hard for each other, especially in defence.

“I love defending. Hopefully we can limit the points next year, but there’s plenty of good attackers in Group 11.”

Prout said the club will sit down next week to assess where it was with its playing squad, and from there the Spacemen will identify areas to strengthen ahead of next winter.

Prout couldn’t confirm if that squad will include gun fullback Sam Dwyer, with speculation growing the current Western Rams No.1 will make the move to Group 10 in 2018.

“At the moment we’re touching base with the locals first … there’s some young fellas stepping up too, I’m keen to work on them,” he added.

“But it’s always good to get a couple in to boost the roster.

“If we can keep the majority (of last year’s squad), we can go close to giving it a shake.”