"I told [board chairman] Russell Booth so he was in a little state of disbelief," says Hastings, adding Booth had asked him if he wanted to reconsider.
"Some of the people were dumbfounded and gobsmacked, I suppose."
His decision comes on the heels of the club posting a "situations vacant" advertisement on its website, prompting fans, some from outside Hawke's Bay, to speculate that heads were likely to roll.
It is inviting "expressions of interest for coaching roles" for the Lotto Central League, Computercare Pacific Premiership (reserves) and division one (youth development) teams.
"If you believe you have the technical and tactical abilities, along with proven experience and results to coach at these levels, then we want to hear from you. Napier City Rovers is the most successful club in Hawke's Bay and we are committed to continuing this success both on and off the field," the advertisement reads.
The deadline for applicants is by the close of business today.
When contacted late last week Rovers club president and board member Barrie Hughes insisted there was nothing sinister about the advertisement but simply a case of the Bay's elite club taking its coaching set up to a different realm where, for instance, the youth grades will be integrated.
After an initial three-year stint from 2010, Hastings was on a one-year contract, mutually renewable at the end of each season.
Under his tenure, the Bill Robertson-captained side won the Central League crown in the 2012 season but finished fifth this year.
The team, which Hastings coached to a Chatham Cup (knockout) losing finalists berth in 2011, had this winter lost nine players from the league championship-winning squad.
While accepting the Rovers didn't have a disastrous season this year, Hughes said coaching was a "transient sort of occupation" although he didn't think Hastings would necessarily lose his perch but understood if fans felt the advertisement wasn't a glowing endorsement of coaches at the club.
Hastings' son, Matt Hastings, a former Kinetic Electrical Hawke's Bay United and elite Rovers player, was the rookie premiership coach this year.
"It could be that Grant is the best person for the job but then how do we [the board] know that," Hughes had said.
Last Thursday, in a debriefing meeting, Hastings was somewhat perplexed that a board member asked him what he thought of Dion Adams as a coach.
"Having to reapply for the job didn't sit very well with me."
Adams, who was last summer the coach of the Bay United Youth team, was at the helm of the Cru Bar Maycenvale United team who were demoted from the Central League last winter. He now plays for the Best Travel Havelock North Wanderers team in the premiership.
For Grant Hastings, the school sport business he's running with his wife is expanding.
"If you can't commit to Napier City Rovers 100 per cent then there's no reason to carry on."
Without doubt he still loves the beautiful game and intends to carry on if things in the pipeline eventuate.
However, he was loath to prematurely disclose details for fear of putting a hex on his plans.
"I don't want to put a jinx on it and blow it out of the water."
He reconciles his sudden departure with a justified sense of achievement limited to a select few.
"I've won the Central League and coached my team to the Chatham Cup [knockout] final so I've achieved some huge things that others haven't as a player or coach," he says, expressing some regret he couldn't achieve the double in a season.
While they only beat 2013 Central League champions Miramar Rangers above them at home, he hastens to add the fifth-placed Rovers didn't lose to anyone below them.
Hastings didn't believe nine players failed to return because they had any qualms with him but simply ventured to bigger and better things abroad, having been there and done that, as it were.
Goalkeeper Shaun Peta was the only player to cross the floor to Western Rangers while son Matt Hastings opted to coach.
Agreeing the exodus of players was a factor in the Rovers' mid-table finish, Booth last night, however, said the fifth placing didn't sit well with the board.
"Losing nine players was certainly a factor but the whole view from the board was that we could have done better and we were going to look at that but never got around to it," he said.
While Rovers had beaten Miramar at home, they had lost to the Greeks 4-3 here even after scoring three goals.
The board has received countless applications from overseas, such as Europe and South America, but it has five applicants from the region to pick a coach from by the end of next month.
"Some people out there think we're a wealthy professional club [but] we just simply can't afford to employ them.
"We have a building and mortgage to pay," Booth said, adding they were a relatively small club with six senior teams and 12 junior ones.
Hastings' decision, he said, shocked the club members although he told him not long before the prizegiving.
He assured the Rovers he wasn't coaching at another club.
Echoing Hughes' sentiments, Booth said the crux of the matter was sports clubs had to be run like businesses so the one-year contract lent to that practice, something he felt Hastings knew all along.
