Year one offered lessons aplenty
ROCHDALE Hornets head coach Alan Kilshaw admits he has learned plenty from his debut season in the Kingstone Press Championship and plans on using that to his advantage during the forthcoming campaign.
Hornets kick off the first of their preseason friendlies against Oldham Roughyeds this weekend ahead of the start of the competitive action next month.
Kilshaw is looking forward to another year in the Championship, and believes that he will be better off this time around.
“You’re always learning. This is my sixth season as a head coach and you always look at different ideas and ways to freshen things up,” he said.
“The Championship is a different beast to other leagues. It’s a bit of an uneven league with some part time teams and some full time teams, but we know what to expect thing time.
“Some of our training has been tailored around that, as we don’t want to peak too early like we seemed to do last year.
“We always want to make a good start, but it’s about sustaining that.
“One of the thing that myself and the players took from last year was the grind of the season.
“We limped over the line a bit last year, so we need to be a bit smarter with how we rotate the squad this year.
“We’re focused a lot on fitness, technique and discipline, so we’ll build on that week in week out over the friendlies ahead of the start of the season.”