The announcement came on the back of Duffy’s declaration that he was retiring as a player after 389 games for the Roos and about 50 games in three seasons at Central Augusta.

The triple Mail medallist and SGFL Madigan medallist said he had no regrets about drawing the curtain on his distinguished career and was now looking forward to getting the Roos back into contention as a force to be reckoned with in Northern Areas.

“We started training on Sunday which is easily the earliest we have begun a pre-season,” Duffy said.

“A fair few of them wanted to get into it so we are starting.

“During last year I thought we had tried a lot of blokes who hadn’t played much A grade and by the end of the year we (still) took it up to most teams.

“So I just think there was a fair bit of improvement there and if we get fit early on with everyone on the track we can hopefully win some early games. The feeling is pretty good - like we can’t go any worse - we finished bottom so we can only go one way.”