Gades go back to the future as Stevens accepts dual role

The Melbourne Renegades' inaugural WBBL coach, Lachlan Stevens, will return to the job this season, while he's also accepted the head coaching role of the Victorian women's team.

Stevens took over as interim head coach of Victoria's men’s team last summer following the departure of Andrew McDonald, but he'll return to the women’s program in 2020-21.

He takes on the Victoria women's job from David Hemp, who has also vacated his role in charge of the Stars in the WBBL, while Tim Coyle was dismissed as Renegades coach earlier this month.

A former player with South Australia and Queensland, Stevens has held various coaching roles in men's and women's domestic cricket around Australia, including leading the Renegades in the first and second seasons of the WBBL.

His appointment comes amid a major restructure and a raft of redundancies at Cricket Victoria, who are yet to announce a full-time coach of their men's team for the coming season.

The likes of Chris Rogers, David Saker, Michael Klinger, Trevor Bayliss, Cameron White and Brad Hodge have all been linked to the vacant men's job in the media.

Despite Victoria’s impressive form in the second half of last season under Stevens, he indicated earlier this year he isn’t interested in the role full-time.

"It's a great time to be returning to the women’s game given the growth female cricket has enjoyed in recent seasons," he said in a statement today.

Stevens was an assistant for three of Victoria’s recent Sheffield Shield triumphs as well as for the Renegades’ title-winning run in the 2018-19 KFC Big Bash League.

"Lachlan’s been an excellent contributor to Victorian Cricket and it’s fantastic that we have the scope within our system to provide a fresh challenge that we know he’s looking forward to taking on,"said Cricket Victoria’s General Manager of Cricket Shaun Graf.

On Tuesday, Renegades allrounder Sophie Molineux revealed the shock that swept through the playing group when Coyle was sacked earlier this month.

"There's a lot going in, not just in sport, but it definitely hit home when we saw Coyley go," she said.

"The last couple of years at the Renegades he's done a massive amount of work to get us into position to play in semi-finals and be really close to the grand finals.

"We'll always be thankful for what he's done.

"The group has definitely got some really sad emotions about him not being able to come back."