FARRER FILES: CSU BUSHPIGS

CSU

2015 Finish: 8th

Home & Away: 1 win; 15 losses

Club Best & Fairest: Jack Egan

Telstra Rising Star: Tom Jeffery

Snapshot:

CSU will head into 2016 under the tutelage of Daniel Athanitis, who has joined the club from Rand-Walbundrie. He’s signed as coach for the next two seasons and isn’t promising any quick fixes or miracles first up. The forward/midfielder’s ambition is to continue CSU’s long-term rebuild into a competitive force and is hoping to attract a couple of key players to help kickstart the process.

He’s already had a couple of runs to meet the players before the university courses finished for the year and to gauge where the team stands, and is excited by the challenge of rebuilding a club.

Athanitis takes over from Ash Weldon who took on the job last season to help out the club in his last year studying at the university. Now moved to Victoria, Weldon brought some structure to the Bushpigs early in the year, and led them to a drought-breaking victory over Barellan.

However, the season drifted to a disappointing finish as they failed to recover their early season effort after the university’s mid-year break.

Athanitis – who has interleague coaching experience with the Hume League team – also has the services of Jack Egan as assistant coach again, after a strong showing from the former Collingullie footballer in his first season at the club.

Highlights:

Undoubtedly the bright spot of the season was the win over Barellan in April, snapping a losing streak that was about to stretch into a third year. Tom Jeffery kicked three goals in the victory, in a best-on-ground performance and is one of a handful of players to have recommitted for next season.

There were also the efforts of Jack Egan, who landed a top 10 finish in the Gerald Clear Medal count, a remarkable effort from a team with just one win to show for the season.

Ash Weldon also drew praise from rival coaches in the first half of the season for improving CSU’s competitiveness and encouraging his players to maintain possession. He was pleased with the way his players had applied themselves early in the year.

“We started off well,” Weldon said.

“I know the end score wasn’t really good but in the first half of games in that first half of the year – considering we had pretty much a whole new team – I was happy.

“We were definitely in a lot of games, it was just the finishing off.”

Weldon said they began the season with only seven or eight players from the 2014 side, and with a lot who were completely new to Australian rules. Their increased competitiveness and the enthusiasm of new starters made for an enjoyable first half of the season.

After eight rounds, they were just one win behind the Jets and only two off Temora, while their percentage had only just dipped below 50 after a heavy loss to TRYC.

They may have only finished with the one win, and a few blowout scores couldn’t be stopped, but Weldon said much of what the club should be proud of was behind the scenes.

“Working with Robbo (president Tristan Robinson), the club is better I think. We put a lot of things in motion and hopefully we’ll that in the next few years.

“Just in the way the players conduct themselves and there’s a little bit more professionalism on game day and a training.”

Lowlights:

The failure to back up their early promise and continue to build improvement right through the 18 rounds was the lowlight for CSU. The mid-year break for students caused havoc and they suffered a heavy hangover from that disruption in the back end of the year.

A loss to Barellan, in Barellan, really took the wind out of their sails.

“The second half of the year was probably the disappointment,” Weldon said.

“That three-week break there when a lot of people went home, we lost a lot of momentum. We played The Rock and East Wagga in our last two games, then everyone went off and was a bit down and when they came back it was hard to pick up again.

“When we lost to Barellan, we really lost a lot of momentum.”

Surprise Packet:

Tom Jeffery was the Bushpigs’ rising star nominee but Jack Connor caught the eye of his coach, finishing the season as runner-up to Jack Egan in the club’s best and fairest count.

“Yeah – Jack Connor was really good,” Weldon said.

“I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to get, he hadn’t played for quite a few years – he hadn’t played since school – but he was really consistent.

“He was rock solid down there in the backline.”

Areas to improve:

Athanitis took the opportunity to call a couple of training runs with players in October – less about the fitness and more about getting to know each other and gauging who he might be working with.

He points out that the club gets away to a slow start – they don’t expect to begin pre-season until late February – because university courses aren’t kicking off until March.

The big focus for the new coach is earning respect.

“Everyone knows you’re a good footy club and have a good time, but I’d rather have a bit of respect as far as football is concerned,” Athanitis said.

“This year will be about wining some games, staying in games, getting some respect. That’s the big word.”

Athanitis wants the Bushpigs to be able to use their big ground and make an advantage of it. He’s looking at gradual improvement, getting the players playing the way he wants to first, and limiting the big scores.

The focus at training in the pre-season and the early rounds will be on improving the skill level, and getting the ball in the hands as much as possible at training.

“If we can find another six or seven goals a game… and we don’t want the blowouts. We need to be in games for longer. It can go in 10 minutes.”

What to look forward to:

Weldon believes a year of consolidation has the club in a positive position to head into a new era.

“If everyone sticks around and if they can add a few more senior players, and Daniel is there and obviously he has a lot of experience.

“I think we built a base – hopefully we’ve turned the club around and they can build on that.”

Athanitis impressed the club hierarchy with his professional approach in applying for the job and – a mature-age student himself – the Busphigs believe he’ll bring the right approach to get the best out of the student club.

“Run, moving the footy, holding on to the footy, not panicking,” he said when asked what their game plan will involve.

“I think a lot of sides sat back and waited for us to make mistakes, so maybe using the footy a lot better.

“And start scoring some goals – that was the Achilles heel for them last year, they just didn’t kick a big score.”

He’s hoping to attract some quality players to the club to help lead from the front.

“We’re pretty close to a few, we’ve just got to get that sorted out,” he said.

“A centre half-forward, centre half-back and a midfielder. And there’s a couple of young fellas locally that have been to the training.”

Athanitis believes if they can get some experienced footballers in key positions down the spine then they’ll have the makings of a competitive outfit.

“We don’t want to cap anything but if you can win five or six games and build from there,” he said.

“Probably the first year won’t be about results-based improvement. It’ll be a club-based improvement. If we can get the football getting a bit more professional, and be competitive.”

He’s also excited by the atmosphere of the Bushpigs, where it’s the players themselves who run the club off the field.

“The boys have been great,” he said.

“We had a dinner at Romanos and I’m excited about it. I’ve always played at community-based clubs where you’ve got the old crew who look after things and players have the luxury of just playing.

“This is built around the players and they’re a close group and close to the netballers. It’s something totally different to what I’m used to. It’s probably something that I need, I’ve been around long enough now.”