NEWTOWN NOT RESTING ON ITS LAURELS
78-GAME WINNING STREAK & FOUR FLAGS IN A ROW, BUT...
NEWTOWN netball coach Jason Woolley says his record-breaking team is not about to rest on its laurels in 2017.
The Eagles have taken all before them in the past four seasons, winning 78 games on the trot, culminating in their fourth straight premiership last September.
But Woolley said with opposition clubs invariably improving each year, the gap between his team and the chasing pack was rapidly being bridged.
“From what I’m hearing around the traps I think there is a fair bit of depth coming through so it’s going to be a tough year ahead,” Woolley said.
“Our achievements don’t mean much from one year to the next, everyone starts back at scratch so away we go again.
“You don’t get to look too much behind you at this point and with the competition getting better, every year it has got stronger and stronger so that just drives the competitiveness to be able to say you can’t really switch off.
“If you have a look at last year, the depth of the sides that missed out was incredible, so with the reshuffle again and players coming into the league, I’d expect the depth to be even better and that means you just don’t get an off week.”
As well as other clubs adding depth to their respective line-ups for the impending season, Newtown will present a vastly different side to the one that prevailed over South Barwon in the 2016 grand final.
Woolley said he was con- fident his players would not be lacking any motivation after so much recent success.
“We’ve had a bit of turnover — Casey Price has retired and is coaching down at Portarlington, Sophie Barr is travelling overseas in the next 12 months so we’ll lose her for the season, and Dani Stewart is taking the year off to travel so that is three pretty big blows for us,” he said.
“Jacqui Newton will come in more permanently and Kate Jeanes comes back from pregnancy after having last year off, and Sarah Wolff comes in as well.
“All the girls are pretty competitive so any time they step on to the court they’re keen to win.”
The Eagles get their premiership defence under way against close rivals South Barwon on April 8 at McDonald Reserve.