Ben Cahn has long admired the Melbourne Knights from afar, now he gets to see them close up as the club’s new National Premier League coach.
The Knights announced that Cahn will coach them in their 70th season, replacing Steve Bebic who had coached them the last two seasons.
The role at Knights presents a new challenge for Cahn, a highly credentialled and rated coach.
“The club has a long history and I’ve long admired the club,” he said. “Their history goes a long way back.
“In recent times it has been a bit more baron in terms of success and championships.
“I’ve been really impressed with the club in terms of their vision, ambition and desire to move forwards. I look forward to getting started and giving everything to take Melbourne Knights back to the top.”
The 34-year-old spent the last five seasons in Queensland with Olympic FC leading the club to five straight NPL Queensland grand finals.
In that time they also reached the national stage of the Australia Cup twice. Before his time at Olympic, he was an assistant coach at A-League club Central Coast Mariners and coached the club’s youth league side.
This will be Cahn’s first time coaching in Melbourne.
“I arrive on October 4,” he said. “There were lots of things that attracted me to the role, but I like to work with a challenge.
“I like to work with clubs that have an affiliation with the community. The Melbourne Knights have large support around the area and in the community.”
Cahn said there was a good core group of players at the club and they would likely look to keep that together.
He said he would look to bring in four or five players as he looked to bring his style of game to the club next year.
Cahn is expecting a tough challenge as he looks to take the side back up the ladder. This year they finished in ninth spot, 12 points outside the top six.
“It’s a difficult league to get results and any of 10 teams could be fighting for finals,” Cahn said.
“We were competitive for the most part against the bigger teams. We need to improve our consistency against the teams in the middle of the table sides and we should be up towards the top end.”
Knights president Pave Jusup said the appointment of Cahn was an important step and an exciting direction for the club.
“We’ve been following Ben’s career for a number of years and we’re delighted that he has agreed to join the club in its 70th anniversary year,” he said.
“We’re preparing for a big year ahead and securing Mr. Cahn’s services is the first step towards building a competitive first team that we can all be proud of.”
The club is set to reveal a number of signings and re-signings in the coming weeks.
