Faith in the kids
Pimpinio Football Netball Club management believe the side’s young talent will be key to it continuing a longterm push up the ladder.
During a tough 2021, the Tigers’ football and netball sides struggled to deliver big results.
New president Jock Baker said new senior football coach Clint Burdett had been given the challenge of getting their young talent ‘fit enough to compete against senior bodies’.
“Clint has been focusing on getting everyone fit enough to play the game out, with a heavy running pre-season,” he said.
“There has been a lot of long-distance running, with our top guys doing 15 kilometres a day.
“Clint hopes to get the guys fitter than he is.”
The club’s netball pre-season is set to start next week, with young talent leading the way into 2022, as they did in 2021.
Netball head Renee Clarkson said with many junior players featuring in the Tigers’ senior best and fairest, the club’s netball development program had proved its strength.
“We have junior players who we think will play some senior games throughout the year and train with the senior side permanently to make them feel like they belong from the start,” she said.
With Pimpinio football ground ‘domed, resurfaced and resown’ during the summer, Mr Baker said the club was setting up its players with the ‘right’ facilities to challenge the clubs above them.
“We can’t go much further down really, but with a strong under-17s football side and such promising junior netballers, we will be pushing forward with faith in our talent,” he said.
Speaking about the senior football side, Mr Baker said its next premiership team would be built around its younger ranks.
“Our biggest focus will be handling the transition of our players from being junior to senior footballers and building confidence,” he said.
“We have a four-year deal with ourselves to be playing finals.”
Mrs Clarkson said the club planned to recruit heavily into the netball program in 2022, with discussion on the appointment of a new senior coach still ongoing.