A NEW season is often a new start for many clubs, but none more so than Winchelsea.New season, new start, new coach and, almost literally, a completely new team. When the Blues take on Geelong West in the GDFL season opener this Friday night, coach Michael Smith expects just a small handful of players from their final round game last year to be taking the field It'll be unrecognisable to be honest. From the last round last year to round one this year - six bloke's Smith said. We've probably lost three senior players who have moved on, the rest of them will be playing in the twos this year.
Some of them were a bit disappointed but they're keen to see the club succeed When Smith arrived at the club, which went winless in the 2008 season, he knew he had to make some hard calls and lay it on the line to his players. Reputations, he said, mean nothing. He wanted all his players to show what they had in practice matches and the team would be built from scratch from there. "The main thing for me was confidence, they had no confidence" Smith said.
"I spoke to a couple of young players and I said 'you could push for seniors' and they said you're kidding, aren't you?" So it's just about putting belief in it to the group. We've got recruits who have played at a higher level and they've been saying we should be pushing for finals. They couldn't get it in their head that we can be a finals team. But we've just got to work hard, you don't need any magic, just get on the track, be disciplined and if we're good enough, we're good enough.''
Evidence the message is getting through came when Smith took his young team on a two-day training camp in Torquay recently.
He gave them a choice as to what the camp should be about, "I put it to them: did they want it to be more of a bonding (camp) or did they want to get flogged" Smith said. "And they wanted to be flogged"
Smith said it helped him in trying to find where the balance lay in his team. Train them too hard and they'll walk out, don't train them hard enough and they won't make the necessary improvement needed. "
He's also made the point clear that if they're not having fun while they do it, there's no point doing it at all.
"On the camp I said to them that we've got to aim for finals because if youâÂÂre not aiming for finals you're just you're making up the numbers,'' he said.
"The main objective for the year is to be competitive. We did sit down and plan how we can make the final.s" Whether we do or not (is not the main objective), so long as everyone is having a crack. We broke the season down into six groups and looked at where we can win games and where we can pinch some.
Obviously not winning a game last year .., they're so driven to win a first game it's been easy for me to train them hard.
Last Modified on 02/04/2009 21:07