LEADERSHIP will be a key focus for Laharum as the netballers look to help grow the club this season.
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The A Grade side will be led by experienced duo Caitlin Story and Rebecca McIntyre who will be trying to improve on the club’s preliminary final appearance last year.
McIntyre said she was hoping to see improvement across the side.
“Our goal for the 2018 season is to be a professional team on and off the court,” she said.
“We want to be able to participate in finals and be successful. We are looking to improve the whole club in regards to leadership and role models.”
The team has no issues when it comes to skill, but it will be a matter of mental stamina as to whether they can go all the way this season.
“Ability hasn’t been an issue for us in the past but how we have come together as a team when it counted that has been our let down,” McIntyre said.
“We look forward to that changing this year and will welcome the finals experience we have had across the past few years to sit us in a strong position when it comes to September.
“We are hoping to go one better this year. We are starting to get deep finals experiences and hopefully come away with a couple of finals wins this season.”
Story hoped the side could learn from its mistakes last season to help it chase down the A Grade premiership this season.
“Discipline is the biggest area we want to work on this year,” she said.
“We will all learn a big lesson from last year and taking the same group this year, so hopefully we can all learn and step up.
This will be the first season Story and McIntyre have coached together, and the squad will largely be unchanged from last season.
Story expected the partnership to be a positive one.
“I think it will be good – we will bounce things off each other,” she said.
“We are totally different people, which will be a good thing. I think we will be a good mix. I’ve been around the club a bit longer than Beck, but she has plenty of finals experience.”
Laharum starts its season away to Kalkee on April 7.
Q and A with Rebecca McIntyre
Who will you be looking at to step up this year?
We will be looking to our premiership under 17 team from last year to provide some quality juniors to step into senior grades this year.
Will your line-up be changing at all this season?
We have currently been doing pre-season for more than a month and we do have some new and returning players back to club which is exciting.
Who will be the teams to beat?
The reigning premiers will be the benchmark again this year. Natimuk is such a great team and have a lot of depth. Harrow-Balmoral and Noradjuha-Quantong are always consistent every year and always have strong teams.