Saints on right track
If there was ever a group in Wimmera football that seemed on the right track in getting difficult operational structure surrounding a country club right it must surely be Horsham Saints.
If you were given an assignment to tick boxes to measure overall club success, the Saints would have only a few, if any, remaining.
Horsham Saints represent a wonderful sporting story of evolution, resilience and sustainability.
From humble beginnings as a parish team at what was then Meadowbank’s Coughlin Swamp, the club is now developing as a powerhouse team of Wimmera league. It is more than a fair achievement.
A measure of this was no more apparent than the club having every football and netball team in last year’s finals.
The Saints were certainly ‘marching in’ and have been for a while.
Club president Mick Morris has good reason to feel excited about the approaching season.
His leadership team is solid on and off the sporting arena and if the end of last season is any indication the Saints will emerge as early challengers.
The Saints came home with a wet sail. There seems little reason why the team can’t simply pick up where it left off last
season. A year in and coach Luke Fisher will have a clearer understanding of his playing group, is well and truly over knee troubles and this year has premiership mastermind Shayne Breuer in support on the bench.
“We’re looking forward to the 2018 season. Luke has had a good settle-in last season and we were pretty happy with where we finished,” Mr Morris said.
“Shayne’s involvement will allow Luke to free himself up more on the ground and I think he will have a supersonic year.
“The club has a good feel about it. There’s a long way to go to get through the season but we’re excited about where we’re going.
“We’re working on little things that can hopefully propel us a bit further into finals this year.”
Fisher said the pre-season build-up had been promising.
“We have a really positive bunch and training numbers have been good,” he said.
Fisher confirmed the Saints would attempt to build on the momentum established late last season and an overall approach would remain relatively unchanged.
“We will lack a bit of height again and will be asking for players to be flexible in the roles they play,” he said.
Filling one of the big-man gaps will be ruckman Michael Rowe, returning from Edenhope-apsley and the Saints have also been buoyed by other inclusions.
Jacob Cooke-harrison appears right for a full season after having a crack with Ballarat Roosters, newcomer Josh Morrow will add versatility to the list and Nathan Clough will return from semi-retirement.
Team leaders also like the look of Spencer Weir from Birchip and Kieran Hinch, Pimpinio. Major outs are Thomas Payne who has moved to Bendigo for work and Dennis Adams, who has shifted back to Donald.
Mr Morris said the Saints re-set their goals every year, but a consistent directive was to be in a position to challenge for finals every year.
“Our membership numbers are at an all-time high,” he said.
“We like to pride ourselves on being a good family club, to be competitive and to have fun. “Sometimes it is not all about winning. “While we love and crave success, we also pride ourselves on our collective strength as a club.”