THE 2016 SEASON

Q What do you think has got the Heat this far, sitting in the top four?

A The actual team spirit has got them through. We’re very challenged for resources up here and that includes the squad numbers. Because we don’t have an under-20s team, it’s challenging. We’ve got no easy route for the people to play up in. Even though the community clubs have been fantastic with us, going and getting players off them who are down to play for their club on a Saturday is a difficult task. Mostly we’ve had between 14 and 16 fit, so that team spirit of the boys I think has taken us to where we are.

Q Did you feel like battling for the premiership was a realistic possibility at the start of the season?

A I always suspected. I’ve been involved in the club in the junior ranks and I observed the NPL and the team and we don’t have a bad ecord of getting in the playoffs. We’ve been there before and the team I inherited, there were six or seven really good players in there who’d experienced it before so I thought we’d be battling for a playoff place that’s for sure, I thought we’d be competing for it. But I didn’t quite expect to be three-quarters of the way through the season thinking of finishing on top.

Q Can we get some silverware?

A It would be great in my first year and with this squad that we have, I’m not saying that time’s running out but we’ve got some older players and we really, really need to get a lot of young blood into that team over the next few years that’s for sure so fingers crossed let’s hope we can at least be competitive against the Gold Coast.