By Dean Lawson

Harrow-Balmoral coach Nick Pekin has left little to the imagination in explaining how his team would approach a shortened Horsham District football season.

“It’s going to be all-out attack,” he said.

“When or if we get to play this season we’re going to have less games to consider and that means we go on the attack and get a score on the board.

“Many teams last year adopted defensive game styles but circumstances are going to be considerably different this time around and things will be much different.

“We will want to get the footy moving forward and score as heavily as possible. 

“With the firepower and structures we have in place it should be able to happen.”

Pekin said the Southern Roos had been, like other teams across the region, absorbing information about what they could and could not do in the wake of the COVID-19 threat.

“We’ve just been rolling with it. It has been a bit shattering,” he said.

“We played a practice match against Horsham a couple of weeks ago and went very well.”

Pekin said he was confident his team, defending premier, would have been ready had the season started on schedule and the delay simply allowed more time to be prepared.

“Who knows whether the season will go ahead at all, but assistant coaches Simon and Michael Close and I have drawn up a training program for our players that they can do in isolation,” he said.

“It’s pretty low key but it’s compulsory and in two parts. 

“They have to get in at least one running session and one wellbeing activity session each week. 

“Wellbeing is simply making sure they get out and do something, perhaps with family. It’s about keeping everything ticking, including the brain.

“They’re posting details on our Facebook page to make sure everyone is accountable.”

Pekin said he had been impressed during the Horsham practice match by performances of a string of young players.

“We had 13 cricketers who were out of action but had a lot of young kids who really stood up,” he said.

Pekin said Harry Robertson, Sam McDonald, Tyler Hateley, Sam Batterham and Lachie Cooling impressed, and with the likes of Mitch Grant would help form a strong young list.

“We also have Connor Deutscher, who had shoulder troubles, set to step up after surgery, Tom Conheady coming in from Ballarat, Callum Hobbs is due for a senior year and Mitch Clarke, who played as a junior years ago before he went boxing, is also keen,” he said.

Jack Beaton, who previously played with Stawell, is a significant recruit for the Roos but Digby Sangster, who missed all last season with a knee injury, has injured the knee again and is out of action.

Club leaders had hoped Sangster would slip into the void created by the departure of Eric Guthrie to Darwin.

“We’ve lost a couple of blokes but we’re certainly confident we can cover what we lost,” Pekin said.

Pekin added his playing group remained determined to make the most of any opportunity to play this season.

“We sat down with the playing group when we found out we couldn’t train together and I asked them what they wanted to do. They all said they didn’t want to waste the pre-season or the season,” he said.

“We know the group that we have and they don’t want to see the season slip away.

“When and if we play this season we will be right to go. If it’s a June 6 start then early games are going to be pivotal and when we get going I think the intensity will be pretty hot.”

Coaches:

Seniors: Nick Pekin

Reserves: Nathan Neumann

Under-17s: Max Leeming

Under-14s: Tom Austin

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