From the Dugout (St Dennis home).
It’s been a busy pre season for us. After two truncated sessions due to Covid, where it felt like you had all the time in the world to prepare for the coming campaign, this year it’s been back to frantically get the pieces in place to get better. I can’t speak for the other managers, but for me it’s probably the hardest part of the calendar.
I’ve been really pleased with the preparations. Our new keeper coach Wayne Roberts has been doing some terrific work over the summer with Rob and he’s upped his already high standards as a consequence.
Dan Reeve has put on some brutal fitness sessions and we are ahead of where we were last season already in that department
Dave Witts secured the upgraded VEO 2 which gives us an extra layer of analysis which will come in handy for sure.
I feel the infrastructure around the team is the best it’s been in my time here.
We’ve also added Steve Simmonds to the management team. A top bloke, hugely experienced and vitally a winner at this level.
If I were writing these notes 10 days ago I’d say how happy I was with a big squad going into the season. However since then new signing Morgan Vellejo has picked up an ankle injury, Kyle Flew looks like he might be sidelined for some time with a knee issue, Brynn Sturdy has unfortunately broken his wrist and exciting young full back Cory Sargent has had his appendix removed.
We have a squad hopefully robust enough to withstand these setbacks. We have retained most of, if not all of the lads from last season plus added Jack Carron, Jack Rapsey, Sam Mellor and Tyler Cooke in addition to those I’ve already mentioned.
St Dennis arrive today with renewed hope after staying in the league after it looked like they may face relegation.
I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to say that Brian Banfield stepping in last season in difficult circumstances may well have saved the club and given them the platform to hopefully kick on.
From our point of view, we simply have to improve on last season. There’s a massive reward of step 5 football for any team that can finish in the top 4. That has to be our aim, probably along with most of the teams in the division.!!
We have a difficult start to the season, if we can get out the blocks quickly, that would be massive
Enjoy the game
Rower
Fixture
