FORMER Melbourne and Geelong defender Jared Rivers has been appointed Collingwood VFL coach.

The 2004 Rising Star winner only joined the Magpies coaching staff this year after retiring at the end of 2015 but will take over from Dale Tapping, who has joined Brisbane.

Rivers had previously held coaching roles at Xavier College and Geelong’s VFL team during his playing career while completing the AFLPA’s Next Coach Program.

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While the 194-gamer admitted the rise to senior coach was earlier than expected he was looking forward to the challenge.

“Joining Collingwood 12 months ago was about immersing myself in coaching, working in a strong program, putting to use the things that I learned over my 13 years as a player and knowing whether it was for me or not,” Rivers told the club website.

“The answer came to me pretty quickly, actually. I loved the environment, the work of teaching the game and the collaborative nature of working with players, coaches and the dynamics at play in a high performance environment.

media_camera Jared Rivers playing for Geelong. Picture: George Salpigtidis media_camera Jared Rivers in action for Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be coaching a team in my own right in my second year but I was very fortunate to work by Dale Tapping’s side this year and learn from some other fantastic football people in the Collingwood program.”

The Magpies’ AFL coach Nathan Buckley believed Rivers was a ready to be a success.

“Jared has been with us for 12 months and in that time has made a really strong impact with his football intellect and feel for coaching,” Buckley said.

“He knows our program, he is ready for the next stage of his development and has committed himself to coaching; to teaching the game and helping to develop players and great teams.”