The competition starts for Colts this Saturday with away games against the Marlins at Manly Oval (or wherever they put us) – 3rd Grade Colts will be starting the day (and leading the way!) at 12:20pm, with 2nd Grade at 1:35pm, and 1st Grade at 3pm.

Now the season gets serious, and the fun begins.

With competition points on the line, and crucial club championship points required as well, all of the effort put in on the training field, together with good pre-match preparation, will be paramount.

After observing the players at training, and then watching the trial games, and seeing how well the players have bought into the Colts program, I believe our biggest threat is ourselves. We need to make sure that we make our beds in the morning, and the 1%ers that can have so much impact on the field will look after themselves.

Selections have been tough, and this year we’ve recorded every player’s attendance to the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night training sessions, and the Saturday morning sessions. I’d like to say ‘well done’ to Rob Wilson and Aaron Walker who have attended every session so far this year (39 at last count!), and also Colts Manager, Ian Wilson, who’s also been to every session recording names and updating lists.

This week is the start of a red-hot first four weeks of tough competition against some very high-quality teams, and the challenge is there in front of us – but we control our own destiny, and as I’ve said previously, we’ve done the work, and we’ve put in the effort, and the coaches have the game plans to win. We’re ready, and the only question remaining, is whether we have the nerve to keep the faith in what we have trained and prepared to do. I believe the answer is ‘yes, we do!’

Manly is our first challenge and it’ll a big day for the club, both at Manly Oval and at Forshaw – the weather looks like it’ll be wet again leading up to the games, but the players and supporters won’t let that become a factor on the day.

We’ve trained in it, so we are more than ready to play in it!!

Bring it on!

Keith Holmes