AFTER a fairytale Blowes Clothing Cup grand final appearance last year, Orange Emus new co-coach Graydon Staniforth wants to go one better in 2015, and the club’s pre-season will reflect that.
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The greens kicked off their 2015 preparations at Endeavour Oval on Tuesday, and Staniforth said despite several key players playing summer sports the turn out was impressive.
“We had very good numbers, a bit over 30,” Staniforth said.
“There was a really good bunch of young blokes which hopefully signals a good year for the colts.
“We also have plenty of older guys, first graders, lower graders and a lot of new faces as well. It’s very encouraging.”
Fitness will the main aspect of Emus’ pre-season, until its first trial against Randwick Colts on February 21.
“Well, it’s only a month away,” Staniforth said.
“We need to be ready for that, and that means a lot of fitness work in between now and then. Building a case level of fitness really.
“Of course we are concentrating on other parts of our games, basic skill and ball work to make sure we aren’t behind the eight ball in those terms.”
Staniforth said, holistically, the greens will put huge emphasis on the set-piece during their preparations, and putting in practice several unused, but practiced, strategies from 2014.
“There were a lot of things we trained at the back end of last season which we didn’t really use,” Staniforth said.
“So we’ll definitely be keeping those things in the programs, and looking to use them early on in the trials and season.
“Otherwise we’re looking at a lot of scrum work, and with much the same team we’ll keep working on what did and didn’t do well last year.”
