Harper Sercombe
With only two matches to play in the National Premier League season, Hume City has already begun focusing on the future.
With its sixth head coach since the start of last season, the club has been through a plethora of changes recently.
However, since current coach Cameron Watson stepped up about the round six mark, the club has been heading in a positive direction, enforcing strong standards in a collaborative effort to get the club back to its glory days.
“Between round six and half way through the season there were a few changes… there was just that little period where you just had to put your head down and just get through,” he said.
“We have good people at the club, so we were never in doubt that we wouldn’t get through it on and off the field.
“It’s just when you’re in that moment it can be a little bit tricky and a little bit tough, but we got through it in the end.
With the door for finals shut for City, Watson said they have already started their preparations for next season, hoping they can hit the ground running in pre-season.
“We’re trying to get the club back to where they were and where they had success and I guess that’s started with the planning for the off season and moving into next season,” he said.
“Trying to make the club come together again and get that family feel back and build on the end of this season and building into 2024.
“As a coaching team we’ve added some little changes and elements to the team’s game and individual games, trying to improve the team as a collective.
“I think that took a little bit of getting used to. But over the last four to five weeks we’ve really seen that on the field.
“We want to win and we want to be successful and be playing finals.”
Watson and his coaching staff’s determination on setting higher standards across the board at the club, is something he says is already returning dividends.
“The message we were giving the players and how they responded, we started seeing that so that was a big thing for me and as a coaching staff it was a real big positive,” he said.
“[We] could see some sort of change in a small period of time and that just goes back to building on the momentum that we’ve created.”
As much as Watson is insistent on internal improvements he said he is realistic when it comes to needing to have turnover within his squad at seasons end, especially within the teams offence.
He said anyone would naive to think that there wouldn’t be any changes to the squad.
“There will definitely be changes… but our message is going to be the same, just the expectation with that message is going to be a lot higher,” he said.
“For the players coming in and for whoever stays they will be well aware of knowing what we want from them.
“They seem to be enjoying what we’ve given them so far, and we will keep building on that and it’s just going to be a lot more detailed and a lot more precise come pre season and next season.
“We struggled for a large part of the season to convert chances which was quite evident
“We would like to strengthen our attacking options because that’s what wins you games, I think defensively we’ve been quite solid.”
