Bombs away

“For a few years we were the side hunting the top teams, so perhaps we flew under the radar a bit. We can’t do that anymore – finishing on top means we will be targeted more by teams trying to knock us off our perch” – Gareth Hose, left

Leaders at Noradjuha-quantong say the club’s success in Horsham District league is due to ‘hard work’.

The Bombers have the results to back it up, too.

The senior football team finished the 2021 season on top of the ladder and the A Grade netball side was second to Laharum.

Incoming club president and former vice-president Matt Treacy said a club did not become successful on its own.

Mr Treacy said Bombers leaders were always thinking of the long-term future of the club, foresight that kept the club ‘steady’ during the challenges of COVID-19 interruptions.

“The club, off the field, made decisions that were always in the best interest for the future of the club. It isn’t always about now, but about five to 10 years down the track,” he said.

“For example, we were fortunate enough, before the COVID-19 interruptions kicked in, to have a solid junior program in place. And those efforts have started to bear fruit now.

“It has really set the club up to be in a strong position because of that work put in before the pandemic began.”

Mr Treacy said the club always has a wish-list full of finals and premierships aspirations, but success could be defined in various ways and the foundations of future success were important to maintain.

Senior football coach Gareth Hose said keeping player motivation high during the early pre-season was more difficult than previous seasons.

“Last year’s non-finished season really impacted our players’ motivation early on and I know this has been a factor for other clubs too,” he said.

“Now a few weeks out from round one, things have certainly ramped up a lot and the commitment level has increased.”

His side, like many football teams in the Wimmera, has experienced some player turn-over since the end of last year.

Hose said the team had lost a couple players but picked up four or five in their place.

“A few players’ futures are still up in the air, and we have some guys dealing with long-term injuries too,” he said.

He said a focus this pre-season was to continue strengthening the side’s team-defence approach and capitalise on forward-fifty entries with useful efficiency.

“That is perhaps an area internally we wanted to improve, not turning the footy over as much,” he said.

“As well as working on cementing our centre-bounce and stoppage structures. Because of some midfield turnover, with some younger guys stepping in, we want to re-establish that elite midfield connectivity.”

Hose said he was aware the Bombers would be the ‘hunted’ in 2022.

“For a few years we were the side hunting the top teams, so perhaps we flew under the radar a bit. We can’t do that anymore – finishing on top means we will be targeted more by teams trying to knock us off our perch,” he said.

“But we have worked hard to gain respect from the competition and that’s no different this year. We will go about our business in our way, playing a good brand of Bombers footy.”

Hose said Damian Cameron had joined him as joint playing-coach in 2022.

“Damian is an experienced coach in his own right. He previously coached Minyip-murtoa and he sets a high standard for all our players at training,” he said.

“He has a great knowledge of the game and it has been awesome working with him.”

Senior netball coach Fiona Rowe said while the A Grade squad’s enthusiasm was a feature of its pre-season so far, the ‘test’ was to hit the ground running from round one.

“It was disappointing obviously to finish like we did last year, but we’ve got the gang back together and there has been a lot of enthusiasm for the season to get going,” she said.

Rowe said with great numbers on the training court, the side’s focus was on generating a team atmosphere.

“This year we are about creating a dynamic where we can all push each other on and off the court. We want to challenge each other to be better netballers and better team players too,” she said.

“We hope to have a strong team and we will be interested to see how we go against the top squads.”

Rowe said a few new defenders would have a chance to create some havoc for the opposition at the back end of the court.

“Other than a few incoming players, things will be fairly similar to last season for us,” she said.

“We have some under-17s players training with the squad and if they get the opportunity for selection during the season – then great. Otherwise, they are just training at the moment.”

Rowe emphasised the A Grade team wanted to play finals in 2022.

“Finals is our goal, but let’s see what happens when the season starts,” she said.