Football
1 April, 2025
Harrow-Balmoral's date with destiny
Coach Jai Thompson said the playing squad remains focused on winning a third consecutive premiership.
“Everyone's been reasonably good,” he said.
“It's been a bit of a slow start to preseason, just with the dynamics of how things have been going with farming.
“So it's probably more about these blokes getting their work life balance in order first, before we worry too much about the footy side of things.”
Thompson admits the club didn’t aggressively recruit during the offseason to shore up its numbers.
Instead, the club looked within, focusing on developing younger players already in the system.
“We haven't exactly gone out and recruited a heap nor spent a lot of money,” Thompson said.
“This meant we could put a bit extra into our local kids and hopefully they come on in leaps and bounds this year,
“We can keep everything more local, which gives us a good opportunity to train together all the time.”
The Southern Roos must start their premiership defense without Nick Pekin, who underwent thumb surgery during the off season.
“Piko’s probably still a couple months away. We probably won't have him for the start of the year.
“We'll just have to wait and see … Just see how he feels in terms of break.
“We're hoping a young guy we've got here would be able to step into the role and be able to fill that spot,
“If not, we know we've got Robo [Clint Robinson] there, but he's 40 years of age this year, so he doesn't want to take a young guy spot, if he doesn't have to.
“We do have options.”
Thompson said the club has a good problem on its hands - too many players looking to play senior football.
“We've probably got 15 blokes there sitting on the bench at the minute,” he said.
“We're going to try and fit into a team. The talent's certainly there.
“It's just a matter of who's going to put in the work to be able to get himself a spot, and then, you know, staying injury free, hopefully for as long as we can.”