Buying focus has to change
Labrador have gone from making four successive QAFL grand finals to winning just four games this year. Tom Boswell reveals how the Tigers plan to rebound.
LABRADOR president Nick McGuire says shifting their focus from buying talent to developing it will underpin a strategy to transform the Tigers back into a QAFL threat.
Improving junior development is at the centre of a raft of changes planned by Labrador after a disappointing season where they finished seventh with just four wins.
It came after four straight QAFL grand final appearances, two of which they won.
AFL Queensland has confirmed a $65,000 salary cap will be put in place for next season and McGuire has outlined how a club he said had built success through their buying power could overcome multiple challenges and succeed again.
“Our biggest challenge is the fact that we struggle with junior development,” he said.
“It’s going to be something we have to focus on now with the salary cap.
“We have struggled with junior development with Southport just around the corner and also with the
emergence of so many other junior clubs in the northern part of the Gold Coast.
“Twenty years ago when I was playing junior footy at Labrador there was just us and Southport on the northern end of the coast.
“These days there are clubs like Pacific Pines, Ormeau, Coomera and Carrara.
“Our strength has been our ability – because we have a relatively successful sports club – to attract players using a bit of money.
“We haven’t always had the strongest of junior development. We will have to turn that around and focus on that and that will take some time.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us to get back up there as quickly as we would like to because we can’t just go out and buy a few superstars, which is probably the way we were historically.”
McGuire revealed both Labrador and Palm Beach Currumbin requested an $80,000 salary cap be put in place while other clubs suggested $50,000 before league officials settled on $65,000.
ACADEMY SUCCESS
LABRADOR have had a host of junior players find success and boasted more than 10 players in the Gold Coast Suns academy this year.
McGuire said the club couldn’t compete with the resources on offer at the Southport Sharks, who won the NEAFL premiership this year.
“Most families seem to think if they want their kid to be successful they have to play at Southport,” McGuire said.
“But it seems like more kids get drafted from Gold Coast QAFL clubs than others.”
Labrador started the 2018 season with a similar side to the one that made it to the 2017 grand final but a huge injury toll to top-line players meant the club was forced to play many young players without QAFL experience.
MIDFIELD DEPTH
McGUIRE said the club would keep most of the group from last season and while they were content with key position stocks, the Tigers would be on the hunt for more midfield depth in the off-season.
“We are keen to pick up a few players,” McGuire said.
“We are pretty confident we will re-sign most of the players we had but we will target a bit more midfield depth.
“Most people would agree we have two of the best key forwards in the competition in Bryce Retzlaff and Jake Goldsmith.
“Subject to what happens on draft day and how many get drafted, if the Suns academy players we had are no longer in the academy then hopefully we can get a couple of those kids to play with us as well.
“More than anything I just feel like we need a bit of luck with injuries next year.
“Hopefully that turns out better for us.”
PRE-SEASON DELAY
THE club’s pre-season schedule will also be reviewed, with the Tigers likely to start preseason training after Christmas.
“Part of our strategy is looking at when we train and how long we train for,” McGuire said.
“Last year we started preseason in November and the season doesn’t start until April.
“That’s a long off-season. A lot of the guys coming into the year were burnt out nearly by the time the season started.
“It will be up to (new coach Liam Burke) but we talked about some of the younger guys coming back to do some fitness stuff before Christmas while others might not come back until January.”