Ron Griffiths will take the reins at Kurri Kurri again next season, after his plans for the team's future were given the tick of approval by the club’s coaching review panel last week.
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Griffiths welcomed the news and said he was confident the club would build on a tough 2017 season.
“It’s pretty hard to make the changes you see necessary and get the results you want in one year,” Griffiths said.
He said that this year saw the implementation of a number of programs and methods that were aimed at strengthening Kurri Kurri from the junior grades up.
“2017 was always going to be, from my point of view, a year where we evolved the things we were doing.”
He said he was confident that work done with the club’s junior development would reap numerous benefits in the future.
It’s been a tough year for Kurri Kurri, who sit at eighth on the first grade table behind fellow coalfields team Maitland on for and against differential.
But Griffiths said he was confident that there was a solid base for them to build on next year.
“We’ve been there or there-abouts for most of our games this year,” he said.
Kurri Kurri have used 34 players this year, including 11 debutantes, according to Griffiths.
“Our depth has been tested a fair bit, but a lot of clubs are in the same boat at this time of the season,” he said.
He said that recruitment would play a role in next year’s plans – “as it does with every Newcastle club” – but there was a core group of players he wanted to work with.
“If we can keep that core group together, and get some new players in around it, we’ve got a good young group to work with,” he said.
He highlighted “young blokes leading the way” such as Kyle Smith and 25-year-old first grade centurion Mitch Cullen as key parts of the team moving forward.
It’s pretty hard to make the changes you see necessary and get the results you want in one year
- Kurri Kurri coach Ron Griffiths
Kurri Kurri will play their second last match for the season at home this weekend against Lakes United.
“Lakes are pretty strong,” Griffiths said.
The match will coincide with Kurri Kurri’s Old Boys’ Day.
“It’ll be a good day for it, we’re playing at home in front of all the old boys.”
They’ll be without centre Brock Hollis, who was injured last week, but Griffiths expected to rely on a core group of performers from the last several weeks.
“There's six or seven guys who have really put their hands up over the last six weeks,” he said, nominating Cullen, Brock Gilmore and Michael Steele among them.
With two rounds to go, the ladder has Wests on top with 12 wins from 14 matches this season.
Macquarie Scorpions (second), Central Newcastle (third), South Newcastle (fourth) and Lakes United (fifth) round out the top five, while the three coalfields teams round out the comp.