The 31-year-old, who retired during the 2013 season due to a debilitating hip condition, moved into his new office at SwansHQ this week and will begin coaching duties when the one-to-three-year players return for pre-season next Monday.
The 222-game player told SwansTV that he hoped to pass on knowledge from his AFL career to the Swans’ playing group in 2014 and beyond.
“Definitely to be able to give some of that knowledge back that I’ve learnt over my years, and also to stay involved in footy, is something I’ve wanted to do,” Mattner told SwansTV.
“After playing for 12 years, it’s just another way to stay involved in the industry that I love and enjoy, and when you can’t play I guess the next best thing is to coach.
“To stay at the club as well is great because the club has been really good to me and I want to help them out as much as I can.
“I think I’ve still got a lot to give to the footy club and this is a way of doing that.”
Despite retiring from the game less than five months ago, Mattner has clocked up plenty of hours of coaching experience since he hung up his boots in round 10.
Following his retirement, Mattner worked closely with Jared Crouch and the Swans development staff during the Swans reserves 2013 finals’ tilt.
Mattner said that experience inspired him to pursue a full-time coaching role with the Swans in 2014.
“I guess probably the last 10-to-12 weeks when I was with the reserves in the development role I was doing with Jared Crouch and Nick Davis as well, I really enjoyed that and I felt like I got a lot out of it, as well as helped some of the younger guys,” he said.
“To actually see their progress probably in the last half of the season was really good.”
The new coach said he would most likely use a ‘hands-on’ approach in his new role; a method which served him well when assisting the reserves in 2013.
“I guess last year working with the young guys, I felt like the best way of doing it was actually showing them, and that’s how I learnt the best,” he said.
“I guess that’s the thing with being a coach, that you’ve got to learn how players learn, and the best way for them to learn as well.
“You’ve also got to accommodate for every player because every player is different, but that’s probably what comes easiest to me, is getting out and teaching the guys on the track and doing that hands-on style of coaching.”
After six seasons playing at the Swans, Mattner said he believed his greatest challenge this season would be handling his relationships in his transition from team mate to coach.
“The hardest thing is going to be the fact that most of the boys I’ve played with,” he said.
“I guess managing that friendship factor and then working as a coach is the one that’s going to be the hardest.”
But the popular defender said it wouldn’t be a challenge to swap his running shoes for the coaches’ whistle when pre-season fitness training gets underway.
“It’s going to be the greatest thing not having to run laps around the oval and in the three-kilometre time trials,” he said.
“I was talking to a couple of the boys about what sessions they’ve been doing and I was quite happy not to be doing any of them.”
