St Kilda has appointed Collingwood assistant Scott Watters as head coach of the AFL club.
The Saints will hold a press conference in Melbourne at 11:00am (AEDT) on Sunday to officially announce the move.
Watters, 42, has spent the past two seasons as an assistant at Collingwood, taking charge of the Magpies' defence.
He previously coached WAFL club Subiaco, leading the side to two premierships in three years.
Watters played 109 AFL games for three clubs - West Coast, Sydney and Fremantle - from 1989-96.
He beat out fellow assistants, Gold Coast's Ken Hinkley and Carlton's Alan Richardson, who also made the final stage of the Saints' selection process.
Watters is the latest in a series of coaches to have won senior appointments after serving as assistants to newly-retired Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse.
North Melbourne head coach Brad Scott, Gold Coast's Guy McKenna, Melbourne's Mark Neeld and Malthouse's successor at Collingwood, Nathan Buckley, are others.
It continues the drain on the Magpies' coaching staff from the 2011 season, with Watters joining Neeld and Malthouse in departing.
Watters inherits a St Kilda side which was shocked by the sudden departure of Ross Lyon when he was poached by Fremantle to replace Mark Harvey a month ago.
Lyon's five-year St Kilda tenure included grand final losses in 2009 and 2010.
But the Saints slumped to seventh this year on the back of a slow start to their season and were eliminated by Sydney on the opening weekend of finals.
Watters takes over at a time when the club is also trying to manage salary cap pressures.
The Saints entered trade week, which ends at 2:00pm (AEDT) on Monday, with an expectation they would need to off-load some players, although their biggest stars have been declared off-limits.
So far, the only Saint traded away has been young forward Tom Lynch to Adelaide.
Watters' appointment means every AFL club now has a coach in place for 2012.
Of the five to appoint new coaches, four opted for newcomers to senior coaching ranks, the exception being the Dockers.
AAP
Tags: australian-football-league, sport, st-kilda-3182, vic, australia First posted October 15, 2011 18:21:46