Tara Murray
The belief is growing at the Calder Cannons after a strong start to the Coates Talent League Boys competition.
The Cannons have three wins after the first four rounds, as the club’s head into a five week break with players heading back to play for their local sides.
Cannons coach Andrew Sturgess said while wins are good, that isn’t the most important thing.
“Obviously it is nice to be winning,” he said. “It’s more important that the guys are starting to believe that the work over the pre-season is paying off.
“We’ve still got some stiffer competition coming up, no disrespect to those that we have faced.
“It’s pleasing to have won three of our games and we’ve been in all four games. We would have easily won the game against Sandringham, which is undefeated.”
“I’m pleased for the boys that they had that belief in what they do.”
Sturgess said one of the things he was trying to instil in the group that no outcome is guaranteed and that you don’t always get that instant gratification.
He said there were no guarantees in football and that they can’t control the outcome.
“They’re really enjoying the journey and that is starting to sink in.”
The Cannons won their most recent match against the Northern Territory by 173 points.
Sturgess said while the margin was big, the way they went about it was more impressive.
“The most pleasing thing was the team sharing element,” he said. “In a game like that it is easy to go into self mode and fill the boots.
“None of them did that and we had multiple guys kick bags of goals and multiple guys getting a lot of the footy.
“They embraced the team first mentally.”
The Cannons squad this season has slightly more bottom age players than top age, but Sturgess said they had plenty of talent and there’s a lot of exciting bottom age players.
The strength of the Cannons squad has been on show early and has been recognised by selectors of the Vic Metro squads.
“Metro has trial games this week for the under-18s on Saturday and the Friday in the under-16s,” Sturgess said.
“In the 18s we have nine in the squad of 50 and in the 16s we’ve had six selected in the squad of 50.
“It’s really encouraging for the boys that they get the recognition for the hard work they’ve put in. I’m new to the club, but Matt Burton [regional manager] said it’s the most the club has had in the last five years.”
Isaac Kako, Amin Naim, Rye Penny, Ryan Eyre, Jordan Croft , Nash King, Mahmoud Taha, Hugo Garcia and Harry O’Farrell have been named in the under-18 squad, while Felix Kneipp, Oliver Watt, Arden Stevens, Hamish Bird, Hamish Pearce and Cooper Duff-Tytler have been named in the under-16 squad.
The Coates competition now breaks for five weeks, with the players to head back to local footy in that time. Sturgess said they would continue to train one night a week during that phase.
For Sturgess, who is in his first year coaching the Cannons, he was really enjoying the challenge.
“I loved my time at Coburg and it was a platform for something like this,” he said.
“It’s pretty surreal and I’m loving the opportunity that I have been afforded.”
