After the final Premiers womens home and away game on Saturday, Mick Symons told the Fitzroy-ACU Senior Womens team he was stepping down as their coach after two years at the helm.

Captain Gemma Minuz told the RedRoy Mail what Mick has meant to the playing group.

Mick joined the Roy Girls very late in the preseason of 2017, and almost immediately won us over with a combination of footy smarts and dad jokes. From the start it was plain to see that he was a fair and understanding man who loved his footy and doesn't do things by halves. He jumped wholeheartedly into his role as senior coach and has dedicated an enormous amount of time to the squad and our development as individual footballers and as a team. Over his two years as coach he has gone over and above, ensuring that every senior player who has played on the weekend receives written feedback after each game detailing something that we have done well, and something that we should continue to work on.

He has kept training nights interesting, bringing new 'trademarked' drills to training each week and guiding us through them with enthusiasm. But both his passion and respect for his players are best displayed on game day where his animation on the bench is always carefully managed at quarter time breaks and translated into a calm and polite message to his players. This respect is reflected back in our eagerness to listen (some better than others), learn and strive to implement what he has told us.

One of the reasons that Mick quickly earned the respect and admiration of his charges is due to the fact that he never takes himself too seriously, jumping on board with themed training nights and regularly joining in on pre-game sing-a-longs, belting out every word of a very eclectic soundtrack including tracks such as Mr Brightside and My Heart Will Go On. He will go down in Fitzroy folklore for his flawless rendition of Natalie Imbruglias Torn, upon the shoulders of his team after his final game as coach of the Roy Girls on Saturday at Trinity.

We cannot thank Mick enough for the time, effort and passion that he has put in over the last two years as our coach and for helping us to be our most 'bodacious' selves.

President Joan Eddy echoed Gemmas thoughts and said the club would greatly miss Mick.

Mick stepped into the coaching role for our Senior Women late in the piece in 2017, with only a few weeks to go before the start of our season. It wasnt long before his great communication skills, love of the game and wonderfully daggy sense of humour had all the players on board.

Mick emphasised the team-first approach, first to the ball, first to encouraging your team mates and the rewards that come with a commitment to improving your game. He has a consistently positive attitude and that has been a wonderful thing our players have been able to rely on. We will miss him greatly on the coaching crew./p>

The team didnt finish the season the way they would have liked against Old Trinity on Saturday.

Fitzroy-ACU would have gone into this game the more fancied team given ladder position, but Old Trinity put up a very strong performance and had more avenues to goal. They won 8.8.56 to 3.1.19.