UNFINISHED BUSINESS

You’ve had a few cracks at retiring but it’s never really stuck, has it? Even when you took a break in 2006, you helped out the club and ended up on the sidelines in 2012. What brought you back in 2017?

AWell, quite a few things really. One of the reasons I came back was that I’d never fully implemented a game plan I’d devised that I thought we could play.

Q AThat’s interesting. Can you tell me about the game plan?

No, I can’t (laughs). Also, from a selfish perspective, the other reason I had come back was because I’d been quite ill two years prior to that and it had forced me to retire from work. I needed something to kickstart me a little bit and there’s nothing like being around an energetic group of young men. As far as the game plan goes, I don’t think we’re playing it yet and I think it will take us all year to get to playing the way I want us to. I’ve been told that it’s too challenging at this level but I enjoy proving people wrong.

You’re doing a good job of avoiding the question. Are you really not going to tell me anything about this secret game plan? Not even the broad brushstrokes?

AI’d happily invite you out to one of our games and let you discern whether you can see it out there on the field. But we’ve got some very young players. They haven’t been playing the game for very long, if at all. So you can mould the group a little bit. They’re all willing to learn and are a really decent group of young men. To be accepted at my age by teenagers in many cases, it’s really something.