The Western Magpies will keep their eye on the bigger picture rather than any short-term gain over the last month of the QAFL season.
Tuesday 27 July 2010
The Western Magpies are preparing to blood even more young talent over the next month and build a stronger base for next season rather than focus solely on breaking their long losing streak.
Despite their remaining four matches being against the top premiership contenders – Labrador (home), Southport (away), Morningside (away) and Mt Gravatt (home) – the Magpies will continue to look to the future rather than go conservative.
Their predicament at the bottom of the table – they have lost 32 consecutive games – has not discouraged coach Jarrod Thorpe and his staff, who met at length last week to map out a plan and set goals for the last month of the season.
Their focus will be to utilise the tough run to assess the club’s list with a view to 2011, while qualifying the reserves and under 18s teams for finals campaigns.
Thorpe is well aware this process could be painful in terms of results and said: “As part of the journey of change we need to look at what players can take us to the next level.
“Through this process the results on the scoreboard may not be what we would like. I think at times you need to take two steps backwards to go five steps forward.”
Thorpe reinforced his point, saying the club’s focus in terms of senior football needs to be in preparation for 2011, rather than breaking the club’s losing streak in 2010.
“It is not about winning one game but being in a position to win 5-8 games and be competitive on a weekly basis (next season),” he said.
“Regardless of the scoreboard result we will continue along this path and keep looking at the tremendous young talent we have at the Western Magpies Football Club that can take us to the next level.
“Unfortunately you cannot get 30-50 games into them overnight. Experience is the one thing that we cannot give them.
“The final four weeks of the season are critical to the future of this football club and we will be focusing all our efforts on that.”
Rather than give the group the bye weekend off, Thorpe put his charges through an intense pool session last Saturday, followed by a team barbecue.
The Magpies have been on the end of some big losses in the month leading into the bye, with the loss of injured experienced players Luke Scott, Richard Wenham, Mark Dowley and David Hammill hurting.
