Exciting times
Excitement remains high in the Noradjuha-quantong camp following a stellar end to the 2019 Horsham District league season.
The Bombers enjoyed a strong second half of the year, earning their first grand-final berth since Noradjuha and Quantong merged in 1997.
While Harrow-balmoral ran away with the match to score back-to-back flags in an undefeated season, the Bombers were thrilled to make the big dance after years with limited success.
Returning coach Gareth Hose is keen to see what his charges can produce this year after earning the opportunity to vie for the competition’s ultimate prize.
And his charges are raring to go, with between 30 and 35 players consistently on the training track.
Hose said his playing group was highly motivated.
“They wanted to get into pre-season early, so we did a five-week block in the lead-up to Christmas, from November to December,” he said.
“Pre-season has been really positive so far. From a players’ perspective, they had that drive after having a taste of a successful season.
“We know we are going to have to work extremely hard to even have an opportunity to play in finals again.”
Hose said seeing other Horsham District clubs unveil their recruits showed this season would be an even tougher one.
“Every club has recruited well and the quality of players coming into the league is only going to strengthen the competition,” he said.
“Everyone is chasing Harrow-balmoral, they are still the team to beat.
“Apart from them, the competition is wide open.”
Noradjuha-quantong leaders have been busy in the off-season, working hard to recruit quality players to Bomberland.
“We’ve added in some pretty handy players, who will add a bit of quality and experience,” Hose said.
Highly skilled footballer Damian Cameron has joined the club from Donald in North Central league.
Cameron brings a wealth of experience as a player and coach and is well-known throughout Wimmera and Mininera leagues, having led Minyip-murtoa and Tatyoon to several grand finals.
Hose said Cameron was a great asset.
“He’s a utility, he can play anywhere. He will strengthen the midfield if we need to use him there,” he said.
Dimboola player and Wimmera league Toohey medallist Justin Chilver
has signed on as assistant coach and will provide the club with another ruck option, relieving young ruckman Jack Vague.
The Bombers have also welcomed versatile Tom Magee, also of Dimboola, defender-winger Heath Schulz from Warrack Eagles and forward Dylan Bushby, Horsham.
Jarred Crabtree will return to his home club after stints at Waubra and Skipton in Central Highlands league and will slot into the forward line.
Along with some impressive ‘ins’, the Bombers have some big ‘outs’, most noticeably gun forward Matt Walsh. “He’s a pretty big loss,” Hose said. “He only played five games for us but he had a pretty big impact in them.
“Sebastian Relouw has gone to uni, and Joey Mock is also heading to uni in Melbourne and is unsure of his movements.”
Hose said there was also a question mark over Ryan Stacey, a standout last season, whose availability might be sporadic due to work commitments.
Hose has several aims for the 2020 season, including improved consistency.
“We were good in patches last year but not overly consistent, so consistency is something we really need to work on,” he said.
“I’d like to finish higher up the ladder than last year and also play finals.
“Ideally, I’d like to finish in the top two or three teams, but I know it’s going to be red hot for spots and every game is important.”
Club president Andrew Rose said there was plenty of buzz surrounding the club, among footballers, netballers and the wider community.
“It’s a great place to be,” he said. He said the club would continue to focus on junior development within senior ranks.
“The committee has been working hard for almost a decade on building a very good junior program,” he said.
“We started to see the benefits of that last year.
“Gareth has really capitalised on that, and he and the recruiting committee have done a good job over summer.”
Noradjuha-quantong will play a practice match against Nhill tomorrow night and an intra-club match next week.
The Bombers will meet powerhouse Harrow-balmoral at Harrow in a grand-final rematch in round one.