AFTER a cancelled BFNL season in 2020, Kangaroo Flat A-grade netball coach Jayden Cowling is eager to make up for lost time.
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Cowling, who led the Roos to a grand final appearance against Sandhurst in 2019, will again lead the club next season following the announcement of his reappointment this week.
It will be his fourth season at the helm, counting this year's cancelled season.
While there are no firm plans on when the Roos will return to training or hold tryouts due to the lingering uncertainty regarding COVID-19, Cowling said he was grateful for the next opportunity and excited at the prospect of a return to netball.
"Having a year off really shows how much you appreciate netball and how much you miss football-netball," he said.
"Hanging out with the girls every Thursday night and having that relationship is something we've definitely missed.
"I know the girls have enjoyed a break, but it's getting towards that warmer weather now and it feels like we're missing out."
In the normal course of events, this Saturday would be BFNL preliminary finals day.
With Kangaroo Flat's entire 2019 grand final starting line-up returning in 2020, there's every indication the Roos would still have been alive at this point of the season.
"You would have hoped so - that was definitely the aim," Cowling said.
"Obviously after losing the year before to Sandhurst, we wanted to get back and grab a grand final spot.
"We did retain our full list and we did at least have a good start to pre-season. We trained really hard and the girls had really looked after their fitness.
"We're now looking forward to picking up where we left on in March."
Cowling, who coached the BFNL open inter-league team in 2019, has previously led the Roos to premierships in A-reserve in 2017 and B-grade in 2016 and would like nothing better than to add one at A-grade level.
But with much still to play out on the COVID-19 front, Cowling said there would be no rush to return to the training court, but he hoped players would soon be able to catch up to map out a plan to take the club forward.
Kangaroo Flat has not missed an A-grade finals series in more than a decade, with its last premiership win in 2016.
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