WITH opening bounce in the 2017 Central West AFL rapidly approaching, the Bathurst Bushrangers are once again poised for a premiership assault.
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The senior men’s and women’s competitions will commence on April 8 and the Bushrangers will hold three chances for success.
The Lady Bushrangers will start as defending champions, while the Bushrangers have once more formed two senior men’s teams – the Outlaws and Rebels.
Last season the Rebels placed third, while the Outlaws went down to Cowra on grand final day.
This year Bushrangers president Graeme Grundy would love to see it come down to an-all Bathurst premiership decider, with the teams expected to be evenly balanced.
Matt Griffin and Steve Grundy will coach one of the Bushrangers outfits, with the other to be guided by Matt Archer and Paul Long.
“I’m pretty sure we’ve corrected the balance a little bit more than last season. It’s always a bit of an unknown when you get a few new players coming in,” the president said.
“We’ve got a couple coming back – Paul Long and Nath Belbin – and they’ll unbalance things if you like if we put them all on one side.
“So we’ve gone through to try and make it as even as we possibly can.”
When the Bushrangers split playing resources last year to form a pair of senior men’s teams – the only club in the league to do so – there was a question as to how competitive they would be.
But both Rebels and Outlaws impressed and Grundy saw players develop as the season unfolded.
“It did stretch us .. but the positive out if it was that players who were on the verge and might not have been a regular first grade players, they stepped up and what we saw was an improvement in their skill level,” he said.
“That helped both teams along the way, it was a bonus for us in that regard.
“Blokes who were good, steady players but not necessarily making first grade on a regular basis, they all of a sudden belonged to a team first choice every week and they blossomed.”
As for the Lady Bushrangers, the Bathurst club will have even greater depth this season.
Their new recruits include star basketballer Haylee Lepaio.
“Numbers have been fantastic for the girls, we could have possibly put two teams in if it came to a push,” Grundy said,
“We’ve stuck with one and they are going to be very, very good, we’ve picked up some good players.”