Cora Lynn coach Chris Toner has a newlook side and is aiming for a finals appearance in 2007.By Ken Moore
CORA Lynn is a legitimate premiership contender this season according to coach Chris Toner.
He has put his Cobras through a series of tough practice matches confident that the better competition will bring out the best in his charges.
Toner thinks the hard preseason matches and a squad more familiar with each other will give the Cobras every chance to go all the way in 2007.
‘We’ve raised the bar this year and we expect to be a better side. We’ve now had 12 months together, so we should improve and can look towards bigger and better things this year,” he said.
Toner also spoke of the challenges that greeted him in his first year as coach last season.
“It was difficult for us to mould so many new players together,” he said.
“Geographically this club is always going to have new players and we are about to do so again after a heap of retirements.”
On a positive note Toner said, except for retirements, no one had left the club to go to anywhere else.
“We hope we have replaced them with younger blokes in the positions we believed we were lacking in,” he said.
Toner shed some light on the players who he thought would assist the Cobras take the extra step.
“We now have key targets in Dan O’Hara and young Darren Sheehan and with big Ty Esler only getting limited time last year we should improve,” he said.
“We were also lucky enough to get James Arundale from Doveton, who looks to be a super talent.”
Cora Lynn may be a dot on most maps, but that will not stop it striving to be the best said Toner.
“We want to raise the level of awareness about our club and give it a big profile,” he said.
“In practice games we could have played lesser sides, but we took on good ones in the preseason like Berwick, ROC as well as Pakenham and Doveton in the roundrobin lightning premiership on Saturday.
Toner said they wanted to play top sides to gauge where the team was at present.
“We aren’t going to hide behind the fact that we don’t have to play them in the season proper. We realise we are a bit off the mark against those top sides and want to address that,” he said.
Asked what he had learned from the roundrobin competition with Pakenham, Doveton and Rowville Toner said their ball movement must improve.
“It’s something we need to work on the likes of Pakenham and Doveton do it naturally and with us it is not quite second nature.”
Toner also expressed his dismay at comments that inferred the Cobras were paying out big money to lure recruits.
He said this was a big misconception, adding the Cobras had no option but to get players from other clubs.
“This is because unlike other clubs that have a large number of people to draw upon, Cora Lynn represents a tiny population base which in geographical terms is better known as a hamlet,” he said.
