If there is someone who knows what it takes to reach the pinnacle of Victorian football, it is Andrew Cartanos.

Cartanos, affectionately known as ‘the cat’, has joined up with Box Hill United as Senior Men’s Assistant Coach, and has already fitted in seamlessly with the first pre-season session being completed recently.

While it is still early days to implement a game plan, Cartanos will be an instrumental part of the squad’s goals this season. With an 11-year stint at South Melbourne FC and Heidelberg United – the latter including a three-year golden period of success – Cartanos has a wealth of experience to pass on to an emerging squad.

He shared what he hopes to offer as the team continue some preparations before Christmas.

“The transition from being a footballer to coaching is very different, I don’t miss the running!” he said.

“It’s the next chapter for me and I’m excited to work for this group – it’s an ambitious club.

“I’m competitive in myself and I love winning, so I want to continue that as a coach.”

Along with Head Coach Tony Merakis, for Cartanos it will be providing a positive environment that everyone will buy in to.

“Something that we want to build is culture, it will be a major part of what we do,” he said.

“You can have a team of champions, but if you don’t have that culture and willingness from everyone to put in 100% then you can’t win anything.

“We want to do that from day one and is something we are very serious about.”