Key to success lies in recruits
Bombers QFA coach Greg Mitchell says the arrival of experience key position players will put the club on the path to winning its first senior premiership in over a decade.
The Bombers finished eighth in last year’s QFA competition, struggling to match it with rivals without ruckman, full forward or centre half back. That’s all changed in 2018 at the Bombers.
“We have kept a good core group of our list from last year, probably 80 per cent which was a good starting point for us,” Mitchell said.
“We have been able to build around that in the positions we were lacking last year.
“We really just lacked the older key position players, we were pretty young last year so we just put a little bit of experience around them which is what we needed.
“A lot of the blokes have signed for minimum two years so we are looking further down the track.
“If your core group are local kids – which they are – and they have got experience around them I think you go pretty good.
“Your bottom six are the most important so we have been trying to strengthen those from the year before. I’m comfortable with what we have got.” Mitchell has taken over from Burleigh’s most successful coach, Troy Crossley, who has stepped back in order to support son Brayden who was drafted to the Gold Coast Suns at the end of 2017.
Crossley won the AFLSQ Premier Division premiership (2004) and the AFLSQA Division 1 premiership (2005) with Burleigh.
Mitchell – Crossley’s assistant last season – said Burleigh’s best will be good enough year.
“In my first year we’re trying to build a block there for not only this year but next year where we will probably be stronger again,” Mitchell said.
“If you look at numbers it doesn’t look promising but there was probably another eight games we were in last season that we lost.
“We probably won three quarters of the game and only lost one quarter but lost the game. “That’s just the young kids, they couldn’t concentrate long enough.
“We look forward to definitely climbing the ladder from eighth.”