A combination of renewing acquaintances with Nick Mitchell, re-forming an Adelaide playing connection, and an open welcoming club environment, have made Archie Whiting pretty happy about his choice to come to Fitzroy as the new line and development coach.

Appointed just before the start of the season, Archie says hes loving Fitzroy so far. Everyone has been really welcoming. Its such a big community club, which I love, and it reminds me of country footy clubs like Hamilton and Barwon Heads to a certain degree.

The club has a fantastic reputation in footy circles, which everyone involved should be really proud of./p>

Fresh from playing with Barwon Heads, Archie says the stars aligned this year, living and working in the inner city, his former team mate Nick Mitchell approached him with the coaching opportunity.

And it wasnt the first time.

Mitch actually gave me my first chance to coach years ago when he was at Old Geelong and I was injured. From there I have coached on and off in between injuries over the past six years under Nick Mitchell, Frank Dunnel and Jon Knight. I have learnt a lot from all of them./p>

Archie has future senior coaching ambitions of his own, but right now its his recent playing experience and strategic strengths which are benefitting Fitzroy.

Im a bit of a footy nerd and love the strategic side of the game. Also hopefully I can bring a teaching element to my coaching as the best coaches I have had, its been their main strength and something I got a lot out of as a player./p>

All clubs look for recent playing experience on their coaching panel and Archie says its important in helping develop a strong connection to the players and how they are adapting to changes in footy.

Its funny how quickly you forget what its like to play, how easy it is to make mistakes, how tough it is, the running and work involved to stay fit. Hopefully I can be a connector from the playing group to all the coaches./p>

In fact Archie hasnt entirely put away ambitions of pulling on the mighty Fitzroy jumper, despite his injury-prone career.

Archie started his football at the Hamilton Magpies in South West Victoria and was lucky enough to play for Vic Country in the under 16s. I remember fondly getting a serious footy lesson from Bryce Gibbs; it will scar me for life.

I then worked my way up through the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup playing 25 games and was named Co-Captain of the Rebels for the 2007 season.

I was never a serious chance to get drafted and was lucky enough to get contacted by Sturt in the SANFL to do a pre-season and they put me on their list for the 2008 season (it was during this time he played footy with Fitzroys number 44 Peter Baccanello). I was pretty sore in my groins at the end of the 2007 season and only played 10 games in the under 19s that year.

I have had a number of injures that have meant I havent played a lot of senior footy. I had stints at Monash Blues, Old Geelong in the VAFA before playing with Barwon Heads last year,Archie said.

When hes not studying footy vision and planning strategies for the midfield, Archie has his own business in the tech start up world. He started off about five years ago helping a range of sporting clubs and charities with fundraising. We have evolved a bit since then and have started a new venture we are about to launch called Oxil (oxil.io) if anyone wants to check it out./p>

Welcome on board Archie.