The Tradelink Western Magpies have utilized the weekend’s bye to take stock and refocus their efforts for the remaining four matches of the QAFL home and away season.
The Magpies squad did not have the weekend off but instead were put through an intense pool session on Saturday followed by a BBQ back at the club on Saturday afternoon.
The pool session was initiated to freshen up the group for the back end of the season and bring up some senior players who have been injured recently leaving the Magpies well short in on field experience. Senior Coach Jarrod Thorpe highlighted, “It has not helped that in the last 3 weeks we have been missing senior players such as Luke Scott, David Hamill, Mark Dowley, Todd Dunn & Richard Wenham.”
Senior coaching staff conducted a planning meeting to map out a plan and set goals for the club to achieve for the remainder of the 2010 QAFL season. The Magpies face a tough run over the last month consisting of Labrador at Chelmer, Southport at Frankhouser, Morningside at Esplen Oval and end the season at Chelmer on August 21 against Mt Gravatt.
The focus outlined by the coaching group for the remainder of 2010 is to utilize this tough run to asses the clubs list with a view to 2011, secure qualification of the Reserves team for finals and prepare for a successful finals campaign and prepare the Western Magpies U/18 Team for a successful finals campaign over a 3 week break until their first finals appearance.
Senior Coach Jarrod Thorpe is well aware this process could be painful in terms of results and said, “As part of the journey of change we need to look at what players can take us to the next level.
Through this process the results on the scoreboard may not be what we would like.
I think at times you need to take 2 steps backwards to go 5 steps forward”.
Thorpe reinforced his point saying the clubs focus in terms of Senior Football needs to be in preparation for 2011 rather than breaking the clubs losing streak in 2010.
“It is not about winning 1 game but being in a position to win 5 – 8 games and be competitive on a weekly basis.
Regardless of the scoreboard result we will continue along this path and keep looking at the tremendous young talent we have at the Western Magpies Football Club that can take us to the next level.
“Unfortunately you cannot get 30 – 50 games into them overnight. Experience is the one thing that we cannot give them.
The final 4 weeks of the season are critical to the future of this football club and we will be focusing all our efforts on that.”
Last Modified on 26/07/2010 18:36
