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LOCKINGTON-Bamawm United co-coach Kahl Oliver was as hungry for a football season to start as he has ever been in 2020.
The reasons were two-fold.
Firstly, the Cats co-coach had a fierce determination to atone for the bitter disappointment that came with last year's shock straight-sets finals exit in the Heathcote District league, conceding his side had "lost a fair bit of respect from this".
Oliver was hellbent on restoring that respect in 2020.
The driving force to make amends for last year was matched by an excitement about what 2020 could bring for the Cats given the star-studded list they had assembled following the signings of fellow co-coach Brodie Collins, Jesse Collins, Ben McPhee, Trent Bacon and Lachlan Atherton from Eaglehawk, James McPhee from Rochester and 200-game Goulburn Valley league defender Liam Wilkinson from Echuca.
Oliver's much-hyped Cats would have been on show for the first time on Saturday against Huntly, but instead 2020 has become a waiting game of uncertainty with football-netball on hold due to the coronavirus crisis.
"We understand it's all out of our control at the moment and what the situation is, but I was definitely looking forward to this season as much as I have for a long time," Oliver said on Saturday.
"We've obviously recruited well, we had a really good hit-out against South Bendigo and there was wanting to bounce back from the way it ended for us last year.
"So that all adds that extra disappointment at the moment, but it's all out of our control."
As well as round one of the HDFNL season, Saturday was also to be the start of the Loddon Valley league, with Bendigo scheduled to get under way this Friday.
In the meantime, Oliver says he isn't overloading his players with information during the shutdown in which all training remains banned until further notice.
"No-one knows any answers at the moment, so our message is basically that at the moment it's off until May 31, we can't train together, so do your own work for the meantime," Oliver said.
"We've got players who do programs at gyms and they can't do that, which makes it difficult. I haven't said to the boys that they need to be doing this or that, I trust that they will be doing the right thing and what they can and we just have to wait and see what the end result will be."
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