TONY Bishop and Zeb Taylor have a passion to push the Tamworth Roos back to the top in next season’s TAFL.
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Bishop has returned to the coaching role while Taylor will take on the presidency, as Brett Douglas takes a step back.
The Roos have never missed the finals in the history of the club and Bishop wants to keep that record intact.
Bishop was in charge during the Roos’ glory days between 2006-10.
In that time they were in three grand finals straight against the Inverell Saints and took one of them home.
“The goal this season is just to improve over the season,” Bishop said.
“That is always the way and why we have never missed the finals.”
The coach believes that keeping a clean sheet at home is essential for the success of the season.
While Inverell is their arch enemy from those finals, the coach said they still struggle to get numbers on the bus, and vice versa.
“We don’t take full sides there and they don’t bring full sides here,” Bishop said.
“It is so important to get that win so we can finish second.”
Next season, as in the last three, no-one wants to meet the New England Nomads in the semis.
The Nomads have dominated the competition for a few years now, even winning a second-round game last season by 200 points.
The Roos and Saints were closest to the mark last year but even that was still a long way off.
Taylor won the clubman of the year award last season so it only made sense to put the mad Hawthorn Tamworth Roos supporter in the president’s hat.
“Good clubs always have their back of house really good and that is what we want,” Taylor said.
“We want to drive the club from the outside and let the boys play the game without having to think about the club.”
The new committee has already decided to dig deep and has splashed some cash around to get set for a big season.
The club has two new physios and is up and running in the digital world, and has already claimed a new face from Facebook.
The club will keep most of the team from last year but will say goodbye to Ben Coombes, who will be missed in the middle.
Former golden boot Matt Hodge will again be the spearhead in the attack.
Training started the first Tuesday after Melbourne Cup, with the new chiefs claiming the boys need that long to shake off a hard off-season.
A draw and starting date has not been released for the 2015 season as yet.