Vibe upbeat after Knights’ tough run
IVANHOE Knights A-grade coach Jono Zangrande can only laugh as he looks to leave the club’s injury-ravaged 2019 campaign behind him.
Zangrande’s first season at the helm of the Smithfield club was a forgettable one in terms of on-field results, with the Knights winning six games, losing 11 and drawing one to finish third-last on the 2019 Cairns and District Rugby League ladder.
But the coach says he’s determined to the make the most out of last year’s misfortune.
“We sort of have a bit of a laugh about it,” he said.
“I wouldn’t like to see another season like that injurywise for a while, but you can’t avoid it.
“As a club, you’ve got to get tougher from it – not so much physically, but mentally.
“Sometimes things happen, even if you’ve done everything you can as a club to move forward.
“But your position on the ladder doesn’t reflect what movement forward you’ve made, and the boys all understood that.”
Zangrande said he was hoping for a better campaign this year, which wouldn’t be hard, given the challenges of the club’s 2019 campaign.
“I think we used something like 45 players in first grade last year,” he said.
“But that means 45 people at our club have played first grade, and you can only pick 17, so it helps with strengthening numbers and depth.”
He said the club had been getting good numbers down to pre-season training, with “a few decent add-ons” joining the squad.
“The boys are enjoying it, we’re mixing it up as much as possible and there seems to be a good vibe around the club,” he said. “If you get that sweet spot where all the boys have a go and they (use) self-discipline, that’s what you want.
“You’ve gotta plant the seed but if they jump all over it, it becomes pretty easy to manage them, and that’s where they are at the moment.
They’ve decided they want to have a real good go at it, and that’s half the battle.”
Zangrande said former Northern Pride co-captain David Murphy had already proved himself to be a handy acquisition for the club.
“There’s been a couple of times where he’s had a yak to me about things we could look at, not changing, but just doing differently and of course I take that on board.
“You get players like that in to win you games but also to bring the other guys around them up to their level.”
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