2014 EFL Pre-Season Wiki | Tomorrow: The Basin
by Andrew Wiles (@andrewjwiles)
THEY say premierships aren’t won in the home and away season and that champion teams are the ones who prime themselves for a tilt at success in September.
Unfortunately for the Kilsyth Football Club, its best form in 2013 was seen in the opening months. Not when it counted.
The Cougars jumped out of the blocks rapidly, winning eight of their first 10 games to be sitting pretty in third position after Round 11. From there, they only managed to win one of their last six home and away games.
They limped into an Elimination Final against Forest Hill, where they eventually went down by 22 points.
It was then decided change was needed.
Over summer, the club parted ways with coach Simon Caldwell, who after five seasons at the helm, was the longest serving EFL coach at the time.
The Cougars then moved swiftly to sign playing-coach Leigh Thompson from Mooroolbark.
The way 2013 finished was one of the first things Thompson tackled upon his arrival at Pinks Reserve.
“We have had a good chat about what went wrong last year within the playing group. Hopefully we can address that with our leadership group this year,” he said.
“I think they were pretty disappointed with the way they finished off last season. A lot of the guys have commented on how they don’t want that to happen again.”
DIRECT FOOTY
The brand of footy we will see from Kilsyth in 2014 is a very simple one: quick and long.
“We will be playing some quick corridor footy and using our big targets down forward,” he said.
“Hopefully it’s an exciting type of football, the boys are adapting to it quite well.”
Thompson won’t be going alone this year, employing the help of former Mooroolbark gun Ben Mullet as an assistant coach.
“I can’t speak highly enough of him. The way that he just stepped straight into that assistant coaching role for me, he has grasped the opportunity with both hands and he is certainly a driving force as to where we are going to go in the next six to 12 months,” Thompson said.
NEW RECRUITS
A new coach usually brings a few players with him. But describing the amount of inclusions seen on Kilsyth’s transfer list as a few would be a gross understatement.
Seven players alone have made the switch from Mooroolbark to Kilsyth, with four more from Division 2 in 2013.
“Some of the players we have brought in with that Division 2 mentality will hopefully drive the players forward this year to a better result,” Thompson said.
And there have been a few that have immediately caught his eye.
“Ben Benson has excelled on the track so far this year, as well as Pete Lancaster, who is one of the Upper Gully boys,” Thompson said.
As for the existing players, it is the kids, who were blooded by Caldwell in the previous two years, who have impressed.
“Nathan McCulloch has had a good pre-season, so has Cam McArthur and Corey Suban,” Thompson said.
“They were already on our playing list, but have seemingly taken that next step up with their endeavours at training. It has been very impressive.”
Some of the older players have started to get the legs ticking over as well.
“It has taken a couple of them a little while to come around, but blokes like Matt King and Caleb Rigley have really started to set the track on fire in the last couple of weeks,” Thompson said.
“They are really willing to take that next step and hopefully finish off with the ultimate success in football.”
As is always the case in football, the Cougars will be without a couple of familiar faces when they run out this year.
SEN Division 4 Team of the Year ruckman Hamish Hosking has headed to Doncaster East and young gun Jamie Haag has joined older brother Nathan at Croydon.
Thompson, however, is more than confident that these holes have been filled.
“We have picked up a number of midfielders through our recruiting this year. Our midfield will run quite deep,” he said.
“We have got a few options in the ruck. One will certainly make an impact, so I think we have covered our losses more than adequately.”
COUGARS TO FIELD U19’S
For the first time in three seasons, Kilsyth will form an Under 19’s team this year, a vitally important part of any football club.
“It’s crucial to any club and the survival of the senior group to have 19’s coming through each year,” Thompson emphasized.
“We will probably have two or three of our 19’s playing regular senior football this year and hopefully a few of the other boys will be filtering through our side as well.”
Like most, Thompson believes the race for the Division 4 crown is wide open in 2014.
“Forest Hill have picked up pretty well, Ferntree Gully are always going to be thereabouts with Bernie Ryan coaching them and Silvan look like they have picked up pretty well. But once again, like all the other coaches say, it’s pretty wide open this time of year,” he said.
“Everyone looks pretty good in the pre-season, but once we get to Round 1, we will know who the real contenders are.”
Kilsyth will kick off its 2014 campaign against the Eastern Lions at Pinks Reserve.