Not every campaign is going to go as planned and in 2019, Orange City's winless season has left five-eighth Keegan Harding motivated to make strides ahead of what will be a quick winter of Blowes Clothing Cup action.
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The Lions will have their first training session on Wednesday night and the playmaker thinks the activity will be a much-needed bit of exercise for a host of the players.
"Some of the boys have been doing a little bit but most of them have been sitting around doing nothing," he said.
"I reckon we'll smash ourselves for the first couple of weeks then get back to normal. Everyone was keen to get out there and train when the news came out."
Emus' skipper Nigel Staniforth expressed excitement about the 10-week season that's to come and Harding felt the same way about it.
"I like it because if you play someone a third time, you get over it," he said.
"Two local derbies is good but the third doesn't feel right. I still think the competition should go back to the way it was before with Narromine and Mudgee."
City is coming off a forgettable season and the quicker the side gets back into the swing of things at Pride Park, the quicker they can begin to work towards a better year.
"We've got to to do better than last year... we didn't win a game and that's not good enough," he said.
"A starting point for us would be to make the finals but we need to see who's going to be playing first."
He knows the team needs to win more games but from a personal standpoint, Harding would like to sharpen up all areas of his game.
"I want to improve everywhere," he said.
"But to be honest, I didn't even know we were going to be playing so I haven't put much thought into that."
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Jake Humphreys
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
