On Saturday, the Coota Bulldogs travelled to Junee to face the Diesels, a tough game that the Bulldogs ultimately braved to beat Junee 28 – 22.
Coach Luke Berkery said, “It has been a really pleasing start. We had a lot of doubters, probably going into round one, as I don’t think many people thought we were going to do much good.
“I knew going into the job, we lost 13 players in our preseason that played first grade last year. It has been unbelievable to give a lot of young guys opportunities, and I can’t fault any of them to start the season.
“It has been an awesome two rounds. It has just been really pleasing to see those guys transition out of the 18s now becoming comfortable in first grade.
“We mix and match that depending on what our side is looking like. This week, we will use Harry Boxsell to start, and unfortunately for the 18s, he won’t be able to start with them; he will have to jump straight in with us.
“It has been awesome to see those boys gain a lot of confidence over the preseason. They have had a huge preseason and are now reaping the rewards of that.
“I am absolutely loving it. I knew as soon as I was down there, there for the first week of preseason, I was so happy to be back home and really relished being around the younger guys, to be honest. It makes me feel young as well at times.
“I have been really lucky to have a full preseason, no niggles or anything like that, which has been a long time since I’ve had something like that. I am really happy with how things are going.
“So far, we have had two games, won them both. I believe we are the only defeated team at the moment.
“We are the only team that’s won two games. No one else has won two games.
“Going into round one, they were really happy with the preseason; they knew we had put in the work, regardless of what the result was going to be.
“It was a little bit of the unknown at the start of the year, but now we’re into the swing of things, I can see the boy’s confidence building every week, so really just looking to ride that wave at the moment.
“On the weekend, it was good to have a lot thrown at us. We were down to 11 men for some of that game, and we found a way, which is good character building for our team and another good experience for them.
“Of course, we’re going to miss him, but as I said, it’s just another opportunity for someone to stand up and have a crack.
“This weekend we have our first home game against Tumut.
“We are never too focussed on the wins and losses, the wins are awesome. This time of year, we are really worried about the way we are playing and getting that right and so the results will take care of themselves, but we’ve put some really good things in place, and I feel like we’re growing a lot at a rapid pace at the moment.
“I want to keep seeing little improvements each week, and the results will take care of themselves.
“We did lose a fair few of them boys, the boys that have been around the club for a while, like Lukie Levitt and Corey Gale, Jimmy Maher. It was unfortunate to lose guys like that. They’ve obviously all moved away and doing some other things now but, guys like Tommy Miller, Jarrod Elphick, Joey Ward, so fellas like that, it has been good because they’ve been through a few hard times, especially being the team moved out of Group Nine and then guys are playing there and now to come back in and obviously they’ve built a really good base last year and made my job a lot easier this season.”
Coota will now take on Tumut Blues on Saturday at Les Boyd Oval, looking for a great turnout for the weekend.
Jack Murray
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