Vultures to take lessons from testing 2018
GRIDIRON: The Toowoomba Valleys Vultures SEQ Gridiron season has finished on a tough note with the side suffering a 58-0 loss to the Gold Coast Stingrays.
Playing in front of their home crowd at Herb Steinohrt Oval, the Vultures found themselves up against it from the outset with the team down on personnel for their final match of the season.
“We only had 18 seniors available to play. Compare that with round one when we had 33,” coach Andrew Seddon said.
“To be honest, I don’t think we played that bad. There were a few interceptions that really hurt us though.
“When you’re heading one way down the field, and it wasn’t a matter of them just taking the intercept, they took it for six points the other way.”
A challenging year saw the Valleys Vultures come away with just the one win for the season, but Seddon said there was plenty to build on ahead of 2019.
“A lot of our players were rookies this year and I’m a first-time coach,” he said.
“I didn’t have high expectations and this year was more of a foundation for myself to try and build a culture around the club.
“I think we’ve successfully done that, and this off-season we’ll look to build on what we already have.
“We were on par with there I thought we would be.
“Making the playoffs was a goal, so to be one spot off wasn’t too bad. If we had’ve been winless I would’ve been upset.
“We were unlucky not to face the Raptors again after we beat them.”
Seddon said player availability would be a key to greater success next season with a few of the veterans in the team deciding not to go around again.
“As far as I know most will be coming back. We had a chat after Saturday and most of the boys expect to be back,” he said.
“Some older gentlemen have decided to hang up the boots.
“With the rookies getting a season under their belt and considering how many (players) we’ve had, next year should be a much better start to the year.”
Sean Teuma