Like their Essendon counterparts, the North Shore Bombers have enjoyed a strong start to the season and are ready to add to their success at Premier Division level.
Senior coach and AFL Sydney Coach of the Year last season- Jon Hayres has been pleased with the performances in the first month.
"From the Premier Division side I am really pleased with how the players have grasped an understanding of how we want to play. There is always a burning desire to improve as individuals and collective as a group. Our key indicators suggest we are with further room for improvement.”
The club has also benefitted from an influx of players into Division 4 and Under 18’s to swell numbers to a point where the club are considering adding extra teams at those levels.
Perennial finalists; the Bombers were within a sniff of the minor premiership last season and eventually fell out of contention at the semi-final stage.
Hayres believes not much has changed at club over the off-season.
“Two key areas were continued player development and revisit our culture given the turnover of players over the last three to five years,” he said. “Pleasing from my perspective was that the group wanted to improve as individual players and of course as a team and have been really open to performance feedback.
As a community club whilst we need to focus on getting the best out of ourselves we needed to remain consistent with our ethos of an inclusive family football club – our internal club survey and player retention rates suggests we are doing this well.
Off the field, the club has also been hard at work with the highlight being the upgrade of lights at their Gore Hill home.
"After several years in the making, it's great to see the new lights in action, which allows us the option to play night games,” said club spokesman, Damian Whittle.
“For season 2013 we have scheduled a number of twilight fixtures for our home games across all our grades, so everyone gets the opportunity to play under the lights.
A big thank you has to go to Willoughby Council, Gladys Berejiklian [State Minister for Education] and local MP, Sydney AFL, the Willoughby Wildcats and the committee members that have worked hard on getting this project completed.
The latest project on the agenda, is the installation of an electronic scoreboard for Gore Hill.
According to Whittle, it is all part of a greater agenda to take the club forward into the future.
"As a club, our focus has shifted over the last two years, that we will be a club that caters for all levels of players with the aim of providing an environment they can develop and learn the basics of AFL, as well as play and succeed at the highest level, regardless of their sporting background,” he said.
“We envisage in season 2014 we will add a fourth senior team to accommodate the growing number of new players taking up the AFL for the first time.
There will also be a strong focus on junior development within the North Shore area, engaging with the local junior clubs and improving our rate of transition from Under 18 football into the senior football grades, regardless of how the junior AFL landscape changes over the coming seasons.
We also want to ensure that we continue to work with all key stakeholders on improving the playing surface and facilities at Gore Hill Oval."
Last Modified on 01/05/2013 17:38
