After COVID cut short their finals campaign last year, the Kempsey Cannonballs have returned with a similar squad ready to pick up from where they left off.
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Jared Fuller and Carl Thurgood will take over for the 2022 season as co-coaches with Fuller last coaching in 2017.
"Having a break for a couple of years has been good, I just needed a bit of a freshen up," he said.
"There's so many young fellas coming through at the moment that are just really keen.
"They're really good blokes and I just wanted to get back in and be apart of it."
The co-coaches have also gone about strengthening the coaching team as a whole with Frank Walsh, Teleah Waitoa, Alan Nugent and Mick Heuston all apart of the team.
"We've done a lot around strengthening the whole coaching team this year," Fuller said.
"Carl's been looking after the forwards, Frank Walsh has come on board and he's been helping out with the set piece.
"Frank's played footy all around New South Wales, including Port Pirates and down at Sydney.
"Teleah is the women's coach and she's been running conditioning sessions for everyone.
"We've got Nugo back in a club coaching role as a mentor and then Mick Heuston as the reserve grade coach.
"So we've shared the load a lot, it's been quite collaborative for most of it which has been good."
After the Cannonballs finals berth was thwarted last year, Fuller wants his squad to aim high.
"If we don't say we want to win it then what's the point?" he said.
"We want to win it, that's the ultimate goal and we might as well win it at Crescent Head too.
"We can talk about top four and making finals but we can't just be satisfied making finals, we might as well aim for it all and see how we go."
While rain has hampered some pre-season plans, namely Crescent Head 7's, Fuller said the enthusiasm from his players has been encouraging.
"We've tried to split things up into different phases with some different focus areas," he said.
"The weather has impacted things recently but all in all we've been quite happy with the buy in so far."
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Lachlan Harper
Lachlan Harper is a sports reporter at the Central Western Daily. Contact: lachlan.harper@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Lachlan Harper is a sports reporter at the Central Western Daily. Contact: lachlan.harper@austcommunitymedia.com.au
