Future Bright For The Red & Blue
Written by Josh Duggan
Three consecutive triple figure losses in North Hobart’s last three matches this season might sting the young playing group, but it doesn’t have Coach Richard Robinson any less excited about what the future holds for one of Australia’s proudest sporting clubs.
A tumultuous off-season coming into 2018 left the Demons on their knees, and although the season itself has been enormously challenging for such a young team, a resilient playing group has come through the season excited to get stuck straight back into it.
After the club’s 120-point loss to Lauderdale in round 20, coach Richard Robinson reflected on the difficulty of the 2018 season.
“As a club, we’re still here -there were doubters out there that we wouldn’t be; so we’re proud of that, but we know we’ve got a lot of hard work to go.
“I said to Hugh Williams after the game ‘we’ve got through it, and we’re never gonna experience a year like that again’… in an essence, we started a new club,” Robinson said.
A letter from Club President Craig Martin posted on the North Hobart Football Club’s Facebook page showed that the club hasn’t been dispirited by the tough year that has yielded just the one senior win.
You have been resilient, strong, always smiling, eager to learn and supportive and caring of each other throughout the whole year and your efforts at training and in games have been magnificent.
You have all shown enormous strength of character and your efforts and the great work of our coaching group led by ‘Bear’ Robinson have laid the foundations for future success for our footy club.
The exciting signs shown by players like Jake Steele, Hamish Allan, Will Peppin, Sam Caswell and Samuel Collins among others indicate that North Hobart Oval will be an exciting place moving forward.
Blooding so many young kids has given the club the opportunity to evaluate its young talent and get a head start in development for the future; the recruiting they couldn’t do last year will also be valuable in vaulting the Demons up the ladder quicker than many might have foreseen.
“Obviously, topping up with (former Melbourne AFL player) Colin Garland and having him full-time, and there’s a few other irons in the fire – ex-AFL players, who are keen to come on board – I’m sure there will be a few announcements in the next few weeks,” Robinson said
With all that to come, it’s no wonder that they’re counting down the days until they get to play footy again.
“We’re really excited to see what our pre-season will hold, we’re really looking forward to cracking in; I know it’s August now, but we can’t wait to kick off the season next year.”
