Season Preview – North Shore Bombers
Written by Lachlan Scott
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Season Preview – North Shore Bombers
North Shore have undergone a practical metamorphosis this off-season. With a whole host of changes to their Premier and U19 line ups, the Bomber faithful will be keen to see this injection of fresh talent shaking up the competition. A focus on developing players both on and off the field should hold them in good stead.
Watch out for big match ups against UNSW-ES in the Premier Division and Manly Warringah in the U19’s.
They’ve got plenty to prove, and will be motivated to take the next step in both Premier Division Men’s and Women’s.
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Men’s First Grade Team Preview (Premier Division)
Andrew Rogers, Senior Men’s Coach
Preseason Powerhouse
There is an exciting group of younger players graduating from our under 19’s. Paddy Bolger and Will Hopkins are two players who have been excelling at pre-season training and will make an impact in 2023.
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Rising Stars
- Paddy Bolger is an elite ball user and has great vision.
- Will Hopkins has a great kick and makes good decisions with the ball.
- Harry Rowles is a strong mark and offers great versatility.
- Jason Roach is a livewire forward with great pace and elusive skills.
All are showing great signs to become regular Prems players and are exciting for the club’s future.
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Big Ins
- Harry Rowles (Gold Coast Academy)
- Andrew Mathieson (Box Hill Hawks)
- Tyson Pratt (Norwood Redlegs)
- Mitch Rogers (Manly Wolves)
- Rory Barkley (Long Term Injury)
- Miles Gugger (Long Term Injury)
- Matt Buskariol (Long Term Injury)
All are quality young men and will add valuable depth to our playing group.
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Big Outs
- Jake Veale
- Jack Campbell
- Kyle Devlin
- Felix Rogers
- Matt Thomas
- Liam Puncher
- Will Edwards
- Luke Giacometti
We are extremely proud of the players who aspire to play at higher levels and wish them all well and look forward to them returning to Gore Hill in the future.
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Team to Beat in 2023
UNSW-Eastern Suburbs have been the benchmark for a number of years and will again be the team to beat.
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U19s Team Preview
“Preseason has been hard. Assembling an U19 squad always has its challenges. With some lads starting year 12 and playing school footy along with some finishing year 12 and going on to university or starting work. It leaves lots of changes and little time, with many other priorities. The pandemic changed some behaviours and feels like still hanging over us a little.
The other challenge is ground availability. It is middle of March, and we still have a cricket pitch in the middle of our oval. The lads are starting to come together as a squad at footy and socially, which is really important to fielding two sides – one in Div1 and one team in the Div2 competition.
Our goal for 2023 is developing lads as best we can right across the squad, as footy players and as men, and preparing them for the transition from U19s senior footy in 2024 or 2025. On field success such as having both teams play finals is a bonus and stems from doing things well.”
Ray Armstrong, Head Coach
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Preseason Powerhouse
There have been a couple of who really stepped up from the first training. Jack Bannerman has improved his fitness and work ethic, is very coachable, a great listener, strong communicator, and really developing at a rate of knots.
Cooper Clarke is playing a couple of years up, more comfortable and confident in U19s this year, and will be a small forward goal sneak that will cause a lot of teams some challenges this year.
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Rising Stars
Cooper Donald has really impressed our U19 and senior coaching staff. He is in his first year with Bombers and is slick, gliding around the ground racking up touches.
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Big Ins
Our core leadership team is in great order. The likes of Max Toohey, Jack Harty, Ben High, Rory Madderom, Shaun Wajzer gained some exposure to U19s two years ago while still playing U17s with Willoughby Mosman Swans or St Ives clubs. They played U19s last year and are super fit and ready to go as senior leaders in 2023. Max Toohey in particular, is making some great footy decisions and has impressed our senior coaching staff. Jack Harty has size, fitness, and the capability to really make his mark on the competition this year.
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Big Outs
Some of the lads who rolled out of U19 into our Mens teams such as like Paddy Bolger, Dan Brading, Angus Loebel will be missed. We are pumped to see true age U19s such as James Tidemann and Will Hopkins mixing it up in the Mens prems squad in 2023.
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Team to Beat in 2023
We are looking at the Manly squad being our main rivals in 2023. We like what they are about. They fielded two teams for the first time in a while in 2022, and we expect to be pretty evenly matched across both Div1 and Div2 again with them. They have strong depth, focused on development and heading in the right direction.
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