By Tara Murray
Hume City has turned to a favourite son to take on the coaching role for the rest of the National Premier League season and beyond.
The club announced that former player and coach Nick Hegarty was returning to the coaching role.
Hegarty brings a wealth of experience as a player and manager both for the club and at an international level.
Born and bred in the United Kingdom, Hegarty began his professional career with notable League Two outfit Grimsby Town and had small stints at Scottish team St Mirren and non-league team Mansfield Town before making a move to Australia, where he joined Hume in 2012.
Hegarty won the Football Federation Victoria Gold Medal on two occasions and is one of the club’s leading goal scorers.
Following his successful six-year career as a player, Hegarty was appointed as coach in 2017 and started out as a player-coach.
In 2018, he retired from playing to focus purely on coaching, where he was able to guide the team to a famous Dockerty Cup title in 2019, which was the club’s first major piece of silverware, while also being named as coach of the year.
In 2022, Hegarty resigned from his position as manager to return to the United Kingdom.
Since then he was an assistant coach with Huddersfield Town’s women’s team before heading to Grimsby Town to become the club’s youth development phase lead.
Hegarty starts back at Hume on June 17.
Hegarty said he jumped at the chance to return to Hume.
“It’s fantastic to be able to have the opportunity to return to Hume City as it’s a place that is close to my heart and my family were keen to get back to life in Melbourne,” he said.
“It’s definitely home for me, so I’m very excited to start working with the players and helping them develop. It’s going to be a hard but enjoyable journey and I am looking forward to it.
“The timing was right for us to return so when the opportunity came up, it was hard to turn down. With that said, it’s a big job, I’m privileged to have it and I look forward to representing the club, fans and local
community with the passion they deserve.
“All in all, I am really pleased and ready to help the club, my club, continue moving forward, this will be my only focus.”
Hume president Ersan Gulum said it’s a fantastic moment for Hume to have a decorated individual like Hegarty rejoin the club for the foreseeable future and help us continue our rise.
“Nick is a favourite son of the club and the wider community for his achievements as a player and a manager and I am hopeful that he will be able to bring back the glory of 2019 and return Hume City to where it belongs – celebrating silverware,” he said.
“I have no doubt the players will gain a lot from having Nick at the helm as he boasts so much experience within the game, while also being able to call upon his recent managerial stints at Huddersfield.”
