Hawks on the hunt
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THE University Hawks believe the injection of some new blood this season can help them break their eightyear AFL Townsville premiership drought.
The Hawks are coming off a solid campaign last year, making the preliminary final, but they couldn’t halt the dominance of Thuringowa and Hermit Park, who have fought out the past six grand finals.
Jarryd Graham and Ben Deguara have been named co- captains of the new- look squad this season and Deguara was adamant the Hawks had the playing depth to become a powerhouse of the competition in their own right.
“We’ve got a lot of new guys and a lot of old guys have turned up as well so I think competition for spots is going to be healthy,” Deguara said.
“We just sort of stumbled at the second last hurdle last year, but I think some new players in key positions might add to that mix and hopefully take us to the next step.
“We’re pushing to make it so there’s three top teams instead of just the top two.”
The Hawks kick off their 2017 campaign against the Curra Swans at Muldoon Oval tomorrow afternoon and they have momentum on their side after taking out the Preseason Blitz.
Graham is only new to the club this season, but the former Victorian said he saw some great promise in the University squad in the preseason.
“We had a good hitout. A lot of blokes hadn’t played together before so it was good to just see how they interacted,” Graham said.
“Obviously training is different to game day, but everyone seemed to jell pretty well and played the way the coach wanted us to play.
“It’s a good way to build momentum into the year and keep going up from there.” North Queensland Football Ltd would like to welcome on board and as our Representative Team sponsors for 2017