AFTER swapping his Blue Boars jersey for a Blues one this season, Lachlan Cameron will next season step up to coach the Blues.
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Cameron played both codes the previous season but committed to just league this year.
He was one of the Blues’ best, and finished runner-up to Trent Hilton for the Group 4 player of the season.
“I was pretty happy to just be a player. Maybe it (coaching) was something I’d think about later on,” he said.
But a bit of talk on Mad Monday and a few nudges from the players encouraged him to put in a nomination.
“When the players do that, it’s always a positive thing,” he said.
His family name is well-entrenched in the club.
“Both my grandparents are life members of the club,” he said.
He himself was a ball boy-sand boy in his young days.
The Blues did have some delay forming a committee but, with the remaining positions filled earlier this month, it’s now full steam ahead and Cameron is excited about what next year could bring.
He said the focus at the moment was on retaining as many of this year’s squad as they can.
“We were preliminary finalists. If we can retain the nucleus of that side that’s a good start,” he said.
It does already look though like they might have lost a couple.
Brandan Tago has moved to Tweed Heads, and is likely to take his brother Joseph and cousin Charles with him.
One of Cameron’s priorities will be trying to build the numbers back up.
“Our numbers were really low last year,” Cameron said.
They were one of the lowest in the group.
“Our goal is to build those back up,” he said.
One of the things that will help them is that a lot of the U18s should graduate into seniors.
“There was so much potential last (this) year,” he said.
“A couple of things didn’t go to plan.”
Injuries were a big thing for them.
Tago was in and out, they lost Justin Knight for six or seven weeks and Michael Skillicorn for about a month.
They were all key players.
The big thing Cameron sees they need to fix is their attitude off the paddock.
“On the paddock will take care of itself,” he said.
“Off the paddock is the biggest thing.
“We have to have guys at training.”
The club will hold a family barefoot bowls day on January 17.
It will double as a sign-on day.