After playing its way back into Central West AFL prominence last season the mood is confident within the Dubbo Demons club in 2017.
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It’s been an extra long pre-season, brought about by Parkes’ decision to withdrawal from the competition, but the action gets underway on Saturday with the Demons playing host to the defending premiers, the Cowra Blues.
The Demons made the semi-finals last season but with very few departures and a number of exciting additions, coach Will Bunt feels his side is in for a big year.
“It’s the first game and we’ve only had the one trial so I just want to see some intent,” Bunt said of the clash with the Blues.
“What we’ve been talking about and what we’ve been doing at training and that attitude. It might not be at 100 percent this week but as long as I see the effort and commitment.
“Whatever we do on the weekend we’ll improve on but as long as the intent is there.
“But I’m pretty confident we’ll get a win.”
Despite the Blues being the reigning premiers they come to South Dubbo Oval as somewhat of an unknown due to reports the club is battling for numbers.
...if we do those little things right we’ll be hard to beat.
- Dubbo coach Will Bunt
But Bunt isn’t reading too much into it with similar rumours floating about before the start of the 2016 campaign.
His focus is on his own side, which has been busy integrating a number of new players into its gameplan.
“I think we’ll just stick to what we did last year because it seemed to work but just make it better,” he said.
“Fitness was one of our problems last season, it wasn’t there when we needed it but we’ve done work on that.
“We’ll just keep a simple style and if we do those little things right we’ll be hard to beat.
“We’ve got some good recruits and there’s a good balance and a good basis of a side.”
Hamish Pearce is one of the new recruits the club is excited by and Bunt said the midfielder has impressed at both training and in the pre-season trial win over Tumbarumba.
Veteran Terry Lyons has returned to the club and will be a key figure up front and the same goes for Bailey Delaney, who starred in the Tumburumba match.
“And then we’ve got Ben Madigan, Jono (Naden), Joey hedger and Mick Daly and they’re all experienced players that can balance out that youthful enthusiasm,” Bunt said.
“There’s the new blokes as well and some former juniors have come back so there’s a good balance.”
First bounce in the Demons’ first match of the season is at 2.30pm at South Dubbo Oval on Saturday.
Nick Guthrie
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior journalist. I cover all that's happening in sport in Dubbo and the wider western area and have a passion for doing so. If you've got a story that needs telling, reach out.
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior journalist. I cover all that's happening in sport in Dubbo and the wider western area and have a passion for doing so. If you've got a story that needs telling, reach out.
