For the second off-season running the Diesels have had a change of leadership after Vatubuli stepped in at the 11^th hour to replace the sacked Dane Nielsen.

The role is something the 24-year-old has always had his sights on, but didn’t expect it to come quite so soon.

“I was going to put up my hand in the next year or two to have a crack so it’s come a bit earlier than expected, but I’m excited for the opportunity,” Schubach said. 

“There is plenty to look forward to in 2019.”

Vatubuli has stepped down for family reasons and president Simon Vanzanten said it was sad to see him go.

However he’s confident Schubach will thrive in the role.

“It’s a bit of a shock to us, but we’re lucky that we have some senior players in Trent, Daniel Foley and some of the squad from the past few years who can take up the reins,” Vanzanten said. “We were also thinking of Trent as a captain-coach in the future.

“It’s just come a little earlier than expected.”

Junee made the finals last season before bowing out to Gundagai in week one and have also been buoyed by the return of Tristan Dickson.

Dickson was part of the team during the run to the 2015 grand final, before leaving the club and has spent the last two seasons at Kangaroos

“It’s an awesome pick up for us,” Vanzanten said.

“We thought it we added him into the team we had last year it will be a pretty electric back line.”

Junee has also picked up former Tumbarumba player Etuate Tagicakibau Bola who was part of the Fiji World Cup squad.

Schubach believes there is plenty to be excited about.

“We’ve got a mixture of very good local players and a couple of new players coming in,” he said. “We’ve signed Tristan Dickson which is a huge boost.

“He played for us a few years back and has only grown as a football player since then and have a couple of new signings hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve got a good local base but hopefully we can fill a few holes and go a long way next year.”

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