Youthful Bombers’ coach lost for words

NORTH Launceston’s playing coach Brad Cox-Goodyer landed his second Alastair Lynch Medal as the TSL’s best player on Monday night but there will be no prouder man in Tasmanian football if his baby Bombers win the State League grand final on Sunday.

Lining up for their eighth consecutive grand final, and a blockbuster clash with last year’s conqueror Launceston at UTas Stadium, the Northern Bombers have exceeded even Cox-Goodyer’s expectations this season.

That is why he might be lost for words if the new-look Bombers lift the cup.

“I struggled to get my words out a couple of weeks ago when we made the grand final so I don’t know what I will be like if we win,” he said.

“There was a lot of noise before the season that we were going to fall off because we lost a lot of quality senior players.

“We didn’t go chasing any big fish because we knew what we had coming through.

“We knew we would sustain our club for success in the future by investing on our young guys and they have come on in leaps and bounds, probably quicker than what we thought. It’s fantastic and now they are rewarded with a grand final.”

The man with a natural attraction for the football and a particle accelerator for a left boot attributes his award to the players around him.

“You’ve got to win games to poll the high votes, so full credit to our team,” he said. “You see young Michael Stingel wins the Matthew Richardson Award [best young player] and there are plenty of others, so the future is very bright.”

Minutes after beating Launceston in the second semi-final to claim direct passage to the grand final, Cox-Goodyer’s message was poignant: “I wanted them to reflect and understand what a fantastic year it has been and what they have achieved to get to this point, and that everything that has happened through the season is now in the past.”