By Beth Newman
Broadbeach will be operating on an egalitarian basis this season, new senior coach, Wayne Petterd says.
With a high turnover in the off-season, Petterd said he had focused on establishing cohesion in the playing group ahead of the 2014 QAFL season.
“Obviously, you’ve got your core group and your leadership group and they steer the ship and the rest just follow them.
“There’s no egos here, that’s the good thing.”
The core senior players, including playing assistant coach Taylor Haley, captain Matt Fife and Nathan Quick, bring crucial experience to a side which, Petterd admits, has a lot of raw talent.
“Those good core players are kind of father figures to the younger players, when they’re slacking off and they just tell them right from wrong,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of untouched talent and we’ll see glimpses of it through the year.
“We’ll see some bad stuff, we’ll see some good stuff but we’ll live with that.”
Broadbeach looks a lot smaller than in recent years, with big men, including Mitch Brewer, Darin Stewart and Kieran Brennan moving to other clubs this season, leaving Petterd to devise a new style of play for the Cats.
While some of those players could come back to Broadbeach under the NEAFL-QAFL alignments this season, the changes make the addition of Carrara ruckman Brayde Palmer a potentially crucial one for the Cats this season.
“I could see when he (Brayde) turned up, the effect it had on the group, just having someone who is 6’7” turn up,” Petterd said.
“He’s not a great kick but he’s got good hand-eye coordination and he’ll develop.”
Click above to see our video chat with Wayne Petterd.
Having a relatively young group at the Cats this season has been refreshing for Petterd over summer, with the players eager to learn.
“It’s been really good this year,” he said.
“They are keen and they’re willing to learn and a lot of these kids have already played a good standard of footy.”
The goal for the Cats over the summer has been on skill work, with players rarely hitting the track without a footy in their hands, and Petterd put up a fairly simple reason for that.
“I think we can get the footy, but we’ve got to be able to use it,” he said.
“We want the guys to take care of the ball, and not turn it over. If we turn it over, it’ll get kicked over our heads and it’ll hurt us.”
“If you can control the ball and use the ball, then other things will look after themselves.”
That skill work has taken up the bulk of the attention at training, and Petterd said his side would use its four practice matches to hone their contact work.
Despite all the change at H&A Oval, Petterd said it was finals or bust for the side this season.
“I’ll be disappointed if we don’t make finals,” he said.
“I’ve still got a core group that goes alright and I’ve still got some good kids, who will follow them.”
Broadbeach hosts Mt Gravatt at H&A Oval on April 6 to start their QAFL season.
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The QAFL has been reformed in season 2014 due to a restructure of the NEAFL competition.
The Queensland Australian Football League aspires to be the best community-based football competition in the state. Provide a player pathway to the NEAFL/AFL and provide opportunities for the best community players to represent their clubs in a quality competition.
Clubs applied for a QAFL licence based on 6 core pillars (Administration, Finance, Brand & Culture, Performance, Facilities and Strategic Plan).
