Coutas make big strides
Queenscliff is heeding the lessons of last year’s poor pre-season.
TOM Limb is the first to admit Queenscliff’s preseason wasn’t up to scratch last year.
After three straight flags, the Coutas let their impeccable standards slip. Where training was once non-negotiable, premiership players were starting to find excuses to skip the occasional session.
Fitness levels stagnated, injuries piled up in practice matches and as other clubs accelerated, the Coutas slipped off the pace.
They came home with a surge to make the finals — eventually losing a semi-final to Torquay — but the damage was done after a 1-4 start to the season.
“Not being able to go all the way and falling short in the finals has created a fair bit of motivation for some of the guys, especially some of the younger ones,” said Limb, the Coutas’ co-coach.
“Some had come straight out of the under-18 system and came into a successful side. You just need to look at Jake Hedley — he essentially stepped out from under-18s to win three premierships in a row.
“So for them to realise it doesn’t just happen and that you’re fortunate to be in that position, it’s a real motivation to keep giving ourselves the opportunity to be successful.
“This time last year I think we were quite honest as a group that our pre-season wasn’t tracking as well as we would have liked.
“I don’t know whether you would call it complacency, but definitely some of the guys who had achieved success were all of a sudden having things pop up. Work commitments — when you’re tossing up whether to stay an extra hour or two at work instead of coming to training, or you’re doing other things that impact your time.”
Limb is confident his Cou- tas will be around the mark again this season, buoyed by the return of former BFL interleague player Nathan Pettigrove, who is back from overseas. Several other players are also back from injury and travel, giving the club the depth it lacked at times last year.
But key forward Daniel DeGois, who kicked 102 goals last season, has left to try his hand in the NEAFL with Eastlake. Blake Limb, who injured his knee last year, has retired.
“It’s a great opportunity (for DeGois) and will really push him outside his comfort zone, which we encourage in all our players,” Limb said.
“History tells us we’ll be fine as a club and could, in an odd way, benefit from the forced shift. Before the 2012 season we lost Dylan ChaplinBurch and everyone doubted how we would cover a player who kicked 100 goals in the previous season.
“We became less predictable the following year, functioned better as a forward line and ended up with a more dominant season.”
Limb said youth would also be a constant theme this year.
“There’s a bit of a 2009, 2010 feel about us, where we were really building towards having that successful side,” he said.
“I think the difference we’ve got now that we didn’t have in 2010 is that we didn’t have that mental edge and that mental confidence, so we’ve got that mental confidence now.
“We’re confident we’ll have a strong year and that we’ve got the players to perform.”