From the Record: Temora Kangaroos – Back to the Future

Written by Ned Balme

 

“Kangaroos youth brings memories of premiership three-peat”’

 

Four points is all that separated the Temora Kangaroos from attaining that premiership feeling once again.

In coming so close, you could forgive the Roos for chasing established stars but their pursuit of September success won’t take them too far out of town, instead looking to the club’s young joeys for inspiration.

Possessing an under 17’s squad that took out the premiership last season, Temora President Peter Gerhard believes there’s no reason why the next generation can’t help spur similar success at the senior level.

“They’ve just come off a premiership, they’ve got a lot of confidence. They’ve been playing and training a lot with the GWS and other people as well. It’s all about getting the hands on the footy and they’ve been doing it for a while now. They’ll be very switched on.” Gerhard said.

Lachlan Leary, Will Reinhold, Jesse Hartwig and Abe Wooden are just a handful of young Roos that have given the Roos faithful reason to be bullish about the upcoming season.

 

The club toes a precariously fine line. At the moment, the former looks the more likely philosophy according to Gerard, who likened the current batch to the foundation of the club’s triple premiership years of 2012,13,14.

“There’s some talent there, no doubt, but it’s a maturing age now they just have to bide their time and it will come. It’s similar to the time when (Mark) Kruger came to town and took over, it’s not too far off the same thing. We’ve got quite a lot of young talent and in the next few years we’ll certainly be a force to be reckoned with, and these kids are going to go a long way to creating that.

 

But possessing talent and getting the most out of it are two totally different things, and Gerhard is confident coach Jake Wooden has the temperament and tactical nous to turn junior stars into senior contributors sooner rather than later.

“It’s a communication thing. He (Wooden) knows they have the skill, but it’s about monitoring them. A lot of these kids were in positions where they had to dominate and do a lot of stuff and he just has to find the right role for them at the senior level and get their head around that they don’t have to be dominant. And I think Jake is definitely able to help with that.”

And while the coach will have his hands full with a new look team, one thing remains the same.

The Roos are in the business of winning premierships, and age hasn’t changed that.

“You don’t enter a footy competition to finish second last, you play to win the comp and that’s what we’ll be planning to do. We have every bit of confidence in the young kids to help achieve that.”