HDFNL 2024 season football preview: LOCKINGTON-BAMAWM UNITED

Midfielder Brodie Collins gets a kick away for Lockington-Bamawm United against eventual premier Mount Pleasant last season.

PREMIERS in 2022 to missing the HDFNL finals a year later in 2023 has been the tale of the past two seasons for Lockington-Bamawm United.

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After sliding down the ladder last year the Cats have recruited strongly over the pre-season in their quest to get back among the top echelon of contenders.

Q & A WITH COACH STACY FISKE:

How have you gone on the recruiting front this year?

"We've got a lot of new faces starting with Stuart Taylor from Moama, who has come on board as a medium forward who can also go through the midfield.

"We've also got a trio of Butler brothers Matt, Jack and Taylor. Matt is a key forward who is also our assistant coach, Jack is a key defender and Taylor is a midfielder.

"Elijah Bruns from Echuca is a midfielder who is strong and hard with good skills.

"Matt Hore is a key back who could also go forward.

"We've also got Will Presnell who is a returning Lockington junior who will be a wingman/midfielder coming back after a couple of years away from footy.

"Kyle Baker is a ruckman from Moama, Lachie Holthuisen from Shepparton United could play as a small forward, wingman or midfielder and Mitch Laursen is coming back to the club

"We've also added Jayden Howe from Echuca who will also be an assistant coach and Jack Jansen and Corey Sidebottom from Tongala."

Lockington-Bamawm United coach Stacy Fiske is heading into his second season at the helm of the Cats.

Plenty of new names there. Who are the departures?

"Big Max Johnson has gone to the Northern Bullants in the VFL, which is great for him, Fraser Monahan has gone to Picola, Riley McIvor has retired, Baxter Anderson has gone to Geelong for university and Stan Brentnall is down in Melbourne."

After sliding from premiers in 2022 to missing the finals last year, what sets you up to get back among the top echelon of contenders this season and do you believe that is what this group is capable of?

"It was disappointing we weren't able to play finals last year after we beat a couple of the top teams (Mount Pleasant and North Bendigo); there were a number of things we were in control of and also were out of our control last year.

"We had 38 blokes play seniors throughout the year, so that inconsistency in terms of injuries from week to week really hurt us, but there are also a number of things we recognise as a coaching group that we needed to improve on.

"Our training program over the past four months has been based around getting fitter, being more structured and really building on that competitive edge when we cross the white line.

"We've also tried to increase our skill-set off the ground, so bringing in Matt Butler and Jayden Howe as assistant coaches will provide more support for our players.

"And we've also wanted to make sure we add more depth to our squad and have that mid to high-20s in terms of players who are really pushing for senior selection come round one."

LBU 2023 season summary.

What are your confidence levels going into the season about how deep of a run the Cats can make?

"If you ask any team at this time of the year they'd say they want to make finals and they'd love to win the flag.

"We're trying to strip it back to we've got a lot of improvement to make after missing the finals last year and our focus comes back to getting fitter, making sure we run out games strongly and that we're structured throughout the whole game.

"If we can tick those three things off then it will give us the opportunity to take our footy as far as we can and that's all we're asking... if that's all the way through to a grand final that would be great, but if it doesn't take us that far at least we'll know we've thrown everything at it."

Outside of there being so many new players coming into the side, have you tinkered much with your style of play over the pre-season?

"We've brought in a lot of new players from higher leagues, so we've been able to implement a lot of new things as far as our structures go and that's really exciting.

"Jayden Howe has been an under-18 coach and reserves captain at Echuca and he has brought a lot to the group in terms of structures, but having more numbers on the training track and more pressure on for spots is really going to add to that competitive edge in terms of you can't just expect to turn up and get a game, it's going to come down to who commits and does everything right.

"We identified depth was a bit of an issue for us, so it's good we've been able to bring in a lot of players capable of playing seniors and with the juniors coming through there's going to be a really good opportunity for players to get the best out of their footy."