Heilig has played for the Seagulls and Souths in the Queensland Cup competition and played with London in England.

He then went on to spend time in the European Rugby league foundation and was the CEO of the Norwegian Rugby league.

Heilig is in his late thirties and said his broad playing, coaching and administration experience will stand him in good stead with the Magpies next season.

“I have coached at the Wynnum Seagulls and the East Tigers so i have been in that Queensland Cup system,” he said.

“Obviously being with the Tigers they are the reserve grade to the Melbourne Storm so you get used to their successful way of working and I am hoping to bring those systems to the Magpies.

“I want to work on building a club, not just the one side, I love rugby league and i want to have the town empty on game day because everyone is at mead park, then I have been successful.” 

Heilig said he has no preconceived ideas as to what style the Magpies will play next season.

‘I know some coaches do come to a club with ideas on style in mind, but I will wait and see what players we have and adjust accordingly,” he said.

“I want a one team one club focus and the Seagull culture of the whole town being behind the team and a family environment around the club is more important to me than a playing style.

“If we can train both reserve and A grade together, make sure everyone is comfortable with each other, so that any player can play in either team then we will win more games then we lose.”

Club President Barry Grob said he is happy with the appointment of Heilig and believes he will be good for the club.

“We have listened to the players we know we already have and they said they wanted someone who has experience from outside the local rugby league system for them to learn from,” he said.

“So we have that with Warren, but we will have a very local focus when it comes to recruitment of players, that is very important to me and the administration of the club.

“We won’t know what type of numbers we have but there is a good A grade side in town, but we need to encourage them to pull the boots on for 2017.”

Grob said the club’s administration wants to see two competitive teams on the paddock next season.

“We are not going to judge warren or the team on wins and losses, we have a longer focus,” he said.

“We want the club to be competitive and we don’t want to be in the same spot as we were this year ever again.”

The first training session for the Magpies at Mead Park will be in December.