ONE of the best lessons I've learned in football is to plan for the future but always live in the moment. To learn from past experiences but move on quickly because, while you can never change where you've come from and what you've done, you can certainly influence where you are going and what you are hoping to do.

Today, I sit totally comfortable and really excited about my decision to join West Coast as an assistant coach. As much as others will focus on the Gold Coast situation, I've moved on. I've done what Robert Walls, my first senior coach, taught me: I've done what I think is right.

Yes, I have knocked back an opportunity to lock in a role helping to put together a new club and to coach the Gold Coast side in its entry to the AFL in 2011. It would have been something very special and something for which I'm grateful to have been even considered for.

But I wanted to be more than a one-year AFL coach, which was what the offer of a three-year deal from next season amounted to. If I was going to do the Gold Coast job, I wanted to know, up front, that I would get a really good crack at it.

That was the sticking point in the end. I understand and accept the position and restrictions from an AFL perspective. It wasn't to be. We move on.

A week ago, I thought it was pretty much a fait accompli that I'd be at the Gold Coast. And I was tremendously excited about that.

I don't think the Eagles would mind me saying that I had to pursue the Gold Coast option rigorously and look at various options before I could consider elsewhere.

But when we got to the negotiation phase, we didn't get past the term, and very quickly I realised it wasn't meant to be.

I've had a good break from the daily rigours of AFL football since my retirement at the end of the 2006 season and I've been fortunate that via my commentary role with Channel Ten, I've been able to stay in close touch with the competition.

My part-time coaching role with the AFL/AIS Academy has also been an excellent stepping stone and getting to know the youth that will occupy our grounds for years to come has been great. Alan McConnell does a wonderful job with the AFL stars of tomorrow and has made a significant impact on the lives of a lot of young kids.

But now, with the generous support of my family, I'm ready to move on. To get back on to the rollercoaster that is life in the AFL. And I'm excited about the challenges that lie ahead.

I'm really excited about joining the Eagles. They are a club I've long admired, and their coach John Worsfold is a person of great honesty and integrity for whom I've always had an enormous respect.

I believe I'll go to Perth and learn plenty. Three weeks ago, when I was in Perth to commentate on what turned out to be the Eagles' biggest home loss at the hands of Geelong, I met chairman Mark Barnaba, CEO Trevor Nisbett and Worsfold. We had a terrific chat, during which they outlined their vision for the future. I flew home thinking it would be a terrific opportunity but, in the back of my mind, I didn't think it would happen. The cliche that a week is a long time in footy has never been more true, and the direction that I thought I might take has turned quickly. After considering a few things with the family over the weekend off, I knew pretty quickly what I wanted to do.

I've lived in Brisbane for 21 years and as a player, it was perfect for me. There was that good balance between profile and anonymity. I didn't feel like I was living my entire life in the football spotlight, but there was always enough hype to remind me that what we were doing really did matter.

I'm really looking forward to living in a football-mad city, and experiencing the cross-town rivalry between the Eagles and the Dockers, which, as an outsider, I probably don't fully appreciate.

After completing a pre-planned study tour to the US in October, I'll head west in November to begin the next chapter of my football life. I just hope the Eagles are a little more accommodating and welcoming than they were in my first meeting with them 16 years ago. It was my second AFL game for the Brisbane Bears at Carrara. I was 17. I started on the wing on Peter Matera, was KO'd by Dwayne Lamb inside 60 seconds and, when I went forward, was picked up by Worsfold. Let's just say he proceeded to make life less than comfortable.

The events of the last few weeks have been really humbling and I'm not so presumptuous as to think they will automatically be there again. It doesn't matter. This is not about that future but about an opportunity to work under one of the best coaches in the business and give it 100%.