Bond rue slow start as finals slip away
BOND University director of rugby Sean Hedger says increased off-season fitness training will help his team hit the ground running in 2019 after a slow start to the year came back to bite them.
Handed the bye for the penultimate Queensland Premier Rugby round, the Bullsharks’ finals hopes hinged on Easts and Souths not both chalking up bonus point wins against Wests and Sunnybank, respectively, on Saturday.
Their dreams were quickly crushed though with the Tigers and Magpies running away with their games in the first half.
Bond have lost just one of their past nine games but their 1-5 start to the season ultimately proved costly.
“They will be absolutely filthy that they missed out on the finals because they know that they can beat them all,” Hedger said of his squad.
“Just getting this close will serve as a motivator no doubt for all of the players. Another productive off-season and we should be able to get out and challenge a bit more.
“The first step is to retain as many players as we can from this year’s group.
“Then on-field-wise, any team that is going to be consistent for the whole season probably needs to work on fitness during the off-season.
“That would be the main thing – we can’t start slowly.”
Bond finish their campaign away to Norths on Saturday.