The Kalamunda Cougars Football Club have recommenced training for the 2024 season at Ray Owen oval.
The club commenced pre-season training during December last year and have also held beach runs at City Beach which have proved very popular due to the recent hot weather.
New league coach Chris Bolton is looking forward to a successful season in 2024 and is urging all playing members to take advantage of training before the season starts to achieve peak fitness.
The league senior side will keen to strive for a premiership position in C grade after a difficult 2023 in B grade, having lost key positional players through injury.
On that note, I was pleased to see Blair Southcott returning after his knee reconstruction and veteran Bret Van Groningen looking fit after suffering knee problems last season. Josh Touchell, Jarrod Brockbernd and Max Bradley should also make returns as they missed most of last season with serious injury.
Last season the selection committee had the opportunity to blood over 50 players in the league side, the majority promoted from the clubs Colts teams.
With a number of colts now becoming ineligible to play in that grade it will put plenty of pressure on the selectors in forming the league side for this season.
Their job will particularly difficult as they will also have to select a senior men’s reserves and thirds team to support the league side without having to disappoint players not selected for the first games. They will find it’s a long season and will have plenty of opportunities as the season progresses.
Players who are not selected can do plenty to help on match days to help the coach and team management prepare for games. They can also assist their teammates on the field by positioning themselves around the boundary and encouraging them as a game progresses.
The ladies will be looking forward to another successful season with a Skills Program running through to February, coached by Tiffany Ferguson-Blight who is from the WAFC State Academy.
This blog is produced as an independent community service for the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club and does not reflect the views or decisions made by the club’s administration.
Our contributors to its production include Bruce Glover who is recognized by local government for his contribution to community services.
Alex Haight who is a past player and Life Member of the club, will continue to report club and player milestones and is a regular contributor to the clubs Facebook history.
Because of time constraints we have been limited to reporting on the Cougars League side games during the season and encourage anyone who is interested to report on the games played by other grades.
We also encourage our readers to add their ‘Point of View’ available at the end of each blog post for publication.
We look forward to your contributions and another successful season for the ‘Cougars’
This post is dedicated to Seven Day pet Grooming Services, proud sponsors of this blog and supporters of the Kalamunda ‘Cougars’ Football Club.
