The Coota Blues have already been at it in 2026, starting their pre-season before Christmas.
Sitting down with recently elected Club President, Coota Times journalist, Jack Murray, spoke with Rod Knagge about the year ahead.
“The Coota Blues have been training since before Christmas, for 15 guys in Coota and 15 guys in Canberra,” said Rod.
“It’s trying to get them fit and get a bit of a jump on things, but it’s not that early for us. It’s pretty standard.
“We need to streamline a few things as well as simplify how the club runs. We’ve got a few ideas. We’ve got great facilities, we want to tidy up a few things, and it looks like we’re going to field a pretty strong side, so we just want to be very competitive.
“We’ve got a really good committee. The new people are very capable, and the existing committee is the same. We’ve also got a good working staff outside the committee.”
The Blues recently welcomed new Committee Members in Georgie Armstrong, Mark Annetts and Chris Thompson. All three, Rod said, have fit in with the committee and will add “plenty of expertise and football knowledge to the Club.”
Rod said the boys are training hard at present in the heat, both at Clarke Oval and in Canberra.
Working under Mark Knagge, Jabob Tiernan, Andy Merritt and Mick Daniher, Rod says it should be a successful season.
“The goal this year is to be very competitive on the field, make finals, and hopefully play in the grand final,” he said.
On February 21st, the team will have a trial match against Ungarie.
Rod says they’ve also got their first game against ADFA in the week before Easter on the 28th.
While the team is made up of many of their existing players, Rod said they’ve seen a few new faces and “know what they’ve got”.
“Everything else is business as usual.”
– Jack Murray
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