Kyneton Tigers quietly building towards a re-surgence!
Kyneton look on the verge of their most competitive season for some time with a much more capable list forming quickly at Tigerland.
2nd year Coach Paul Houston is happy with the Club’s fortunes in the recruiting stakes over the summer months, with a host of talented types set to debut for the Club who won their last Senior Premiership in 1997 ‘’ We’ve recruited 12 so were pretty happy with that and we don’t want to say too much but training has been going well, we’ve had 42 and we haven’t had a night with under 28 there’’.
Asked if the recruiting frenzy would continue Houston said’’ Look we would never knock a player back who wanted to play with us, but we have spent our $40,000 for the year so we closed off our spending and are pretty happy with what we have got’’.
Houston’s admission of the Club spending $40,000 will surprise many in Country Football circles with a recent VCFL survey showing that Major League Club’s on average are spending 70,000 per season on players.
Houston brought in a fitness instructor to re-commence training following the Christmas break and has recently stepped back in to continue preparations for their opening round clash with Castlemaine on Saturday, April 3rd.
Plenty of contacts! Houston has worked tirelessly on the recruiting front.
The Non-Playing leader was playing his cards close to his chest in terms of the new talent he has brought to Tigerland although he did predict a much stronger forward half to be the strength of the team.
New Assistant Coach James Condoss is a Century Goal Kicker in Metropolitan Football, Ben Richmond who started the 2009 in a blaze of glory with the Strathfieldsaye Storm has joined the ranks, while Old Essendon recruits Daniel Cooper and Rob Travojski are seen as others that can be used as prime movers in attack.
Houston will also introduce Ray Harrison to the Tigers list who was a long time player under him at Avondale Heights. Harrison a hard running type is set to give the side some bite across the half forward line.
Asked what he had learnt from spending a Season in the competition about the brand of Bendigo Football Houston pointed to leg speed ” It was glaring to me how young the competition is, there is Filo at Eaglehawk and Bond at Maryborough although apart from that their isn’t many older guys in the competition, so the competition is quick and skillful more outside type of football”.
With this in mind Houston believes their is great potential for the youngster of the Club to step up ” We got 18 games of football into alot of those young blokes last year, and many of them have hit that 25 to 28 game bracket and I’m confident that they can improve again”.
The Tigers including their Melbourne based recruits are training twice a week in Kyneton with an additional weights session which they break up for with Houston taking the city based players. A practice match against Riddell League Club Macedon is planned, whilst a match with Murray League Club Mulwala is also a possibility. Houston explained plans for a camp had been scrapped although the group would complete a Boot Camp type session together.
The sharp shooter wasn’t mixing his word when glancing forward to the teams prospects for the Season ahead either ” Finals, nothing less if we don’t make the finals I’m not sure the Club would be worrying about the option of a third year with me, so we need to make them”.
Time will tell how far they rise although with some of super credentialed players arriving at Tigerland, to compliment the local base that has battled manfully against the odds in recent years it seems footy is well and truly back on the map in the township with optimism growing by the minute.
