Australian Diamonds mentor Lisa Alexander says it was a risk appointing a coach untried at Super Rugby level, but she applauds the ACT Brumbies board for having the guts to do it.
Alexander was on the panel that recommended Dan McKellar take over as Brumbies head coach from the outgoing Stephen Larkham and backed him to be a "fabulous" replacement.
She described McKellar as a "hard man" and was impressed with his open-mindedness.
McKellar's yet to be head coach at Super Rugby level, but has spent the last four seasons as an assistant at the Brumbies and was the main man for the Canberra Vikings in the National Rugby Championship.
It might not be at the elite level, but he has had success as a head coach - guiding Tuggeranong to back-to-back John I Dent Cups (2011-12) and also leading Souths to the Queensland Premier Rugby grand final.
Alexander said the appointment of former Brumbies head coach Laurie Fisher was also a good one and would give McKellar an experienced sounding board as he settles into the role.
"I really applaud the board and chief executive Michael Thomson because you have to have some guts to put that into place," she said.
"It's not easy, it's a risk, but if you put good people around [McKellar] that have had success before then you should be able to assist him ... just to navigate those hiccups along the way, it's really important."
Alexander loves rugby and was a Brumbies fan when they first started out because here native Melbourne didn't have a team.
Thomson approached Alexander to be part of the selection panel after Larkham announced he would switch full-time to his Wallabies assistant coaching role.
She's opened the Diamonds doors to help the development of coaches from other sports, with Wallabies assistant Nathan Grey joining them in camp at the Australian Institute of Sport recently.
It's an opportunity McKellar also took up last year, observing not only the world leaders in netball, but one of the most professional teams in world sport.
"[He was] really impressive in interview, really well prepared, [he] is a coach of his time definitely," Alexander said.Â
"He spent a bit of time with us last year, with the Australian team, particularly focused on what we're doing in the leadership space.
"He was very holistic in his presentation, clearly wanting to use sports science to its absolute best too - because based here in Canberra you've got great facilities to do that - and just had that real genuine connection from community rugby to Brumbies, and really understanding the need to bring that academy group up.Â
"He's a hard man, which is good, but he's also got that ability to be open minded to learn, to get better as a coach.Â
"I think having someone like Laurie to be there as his senior assistant is going to be really important for him.Â
"I think it's fabulous for the Brumbies they've got someone who's been basically home grown from the community up ... I think he'll be fabulous."