WITH more than five months remaining until the beginning of the 2019 Group 4 season, one of the league’s top coaches is calling for a pre-season tournament.
Werris Creek co-coach Ron Dellar would love to see Group 4 explore the possibility of hosting a pre-season competition to help clubs prepare for the season ahead.
“I for one would be hugely in favour of a well-run pre-season competition,” Dellar told the Leader.
“It doesn’t have to be anything too extravagant, it could be just one or two games per club with 30-minute halves on the same day.
“I think that would give everyone a really decent hit- out to compliment their trial games that they organise themselves.”
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During the pre-season, sides will look to prepare for the regular season during the annual Jack Woolaston nines competition in March.
“I know there is already a couple of things in place during the pre-season,” Dellar said.
“I’ve got nothing against those types of things, I would just like to see a 13 on 13 run competition to give everyone a hit out.
“It would also be great to include your whole squad, because as far as we are concerned everyone is a first grade player up to May 4 and this competition would be a good way for all the players to show what they’ve got.”
Dellar said the competition would be a “good target” for clubs to aim at in the extended off-season.
“We were in favour of beginning the season in May, but given that we are starting training again on January 10, it is a long time to keep guys interested,” he said.
“That’s why a competition like this would be really good for keeping guys coming to training and would be a pretty good incentive for them.”
Group 4 chairman Ray McCoy said a potential pre-season competition was being considered.
“There’s a lot of things on our radar at the moment and I think it’s fair to say a possible pre-season competition is one of them,” McCoy said.
“In the coming few weeks we will have confirmation about which clubs will be fielding teams and what the competition will look like as a whole.
“From there the clubs will vote and if a pre-season competition is something the majority wants, then it is something we will certainly look at.”
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
