A Bowral Black's legend will be returning home and taking over the reigns of first grade.
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He began his rugby career in the green pastures of the Highlands, now this accomplished prodigal son will return home and look to pass down his knowledge, whilst hopefully bringing premiership glory to the Blacks.
Steve Talbot has had an extensive career in the game he loves, and explained how the opportunity arose to become the coach of the Bowral Blacks firsts.
"I decided to move back home to Bowral," Talbot said.
"I approached Blacks President, Mark Freund and said I was coming back and I would love to help out and get involved.
"I'd been living in Freshwater for the past 20 years. With the kids growing up, we wanted a bit of a change and thought it was time to move back home."
Talbot developed his skills in the Highlands and those skills took him to extraordinary levels. He had quite the career and is now looking at something he's had his eye on since a child.
"I've always been into coaching," Talbot said.
"When I was 12 at school, I'd I was coaching the under 13s. I've always thought like a coach. It was a bit of a calling and I've always had my eye on coaching.
"I began my rugby playing through Chevalier College. Then I moved onto Bowral. I played all sorts of junior and rep for Illawarra, Country NSW and then ended up moving from Bowral to Sydney to play club rugby for Southern Districts in 93.
"I played around 150 games for the Southern Districts over the years and captained the club. I also played for the Warratahs for a long period. Several injuries kept things inconsistent, but also played Australian 7s.
"After settling down and thinking I'd get a proper job, I'm looking to get back into rugby."
Anything short of a premiership is not acceptable from my point of view.
- Steve Talbot.
The Blacks had a great season last year, but faltered in the finals. Talbot will be looking to take the team to the next level and they are already looking toward finals footy.
"One of the massive things last season was Tim Small the half-back and captain, coached as well," Talbot said.
"The idea of having someone do that roll was massive. It was a huge commitment from Tim. But having the structures and off field management, all the boxes ticked will make a massive difference.
"I can only imagine how much Tim was running around like a crazy man trying to field a team each week, instead of focusing on playing his best footy.
"We've been training for a whole month already, our whole year from now on will be based on getting ourselves ready to play really well in the finals."
Things have changed drastically since Talbot donned the Blacks jersey. The pressure is now on, but he's looking forward to the challenge.
"When I first left Bowral as a player, we weren't doing very well (laughs)," Talbot said.
"Coming back to coach then would have been pretty easy, get a couple of wins and it would feel like you're doing something right, but now the pressures really on.
"Anything short of a premiership is not acceptable from my point of view.
"We've all got to up our game and put the work in to achieve that."
Besides winning the big dance, Talbot thanked previous coaches and wants to continue the teams winning ways for the 2020 season.
"The past few years under Gene and Tim the club has done really well," Talbot said.
"I want to continue to develop individuals in their skills and everything they need to be a great rugby player.
"If I can pass down my experiences from professional rugby to help the club as a whole and keep the trajectory of the club on it's upward path that'll be fantastic.
"We can't be content, we can't hang our hats on winning the premiership a few seasons ago.
"Players in the club have won premierships recently and we can't relax and think it's going to just happen again. It's got to be another massive effort and all the other clubs will be working hard to knock us off.
"That's sport isn't it? Once you get to an excellent level, you need to work even harder to stay there."