With footy just around the corner, we are back for the first edition of GUT Feelings…

A random collection of thoughts from the influential minds, deep inside the Nest!

Gut Feelings has come out of a covid-19 forced hibernation as rumours of a return to football filtered through the cave so here we go again, albeit a later start than expected in 2020

• The QAFL is now scheduled to play Round 1 on Saturday July 11. At this stage it is proposed that the competition will comprise of 9 rounds. 4 home games, 4 away games and a bye, with each team playing once and then into a 4 week finals series. Finals will be Top 6 this year, which is a good initiative to ensure as much footy as possible is played in 2020

• There is plenty of preparation work to occur before games begin, but training has been going for 2 weeks now at the Senior level for Men & Women, while juniors are also off and running.

• Junior football is anticipated to commence the week later on July 18, while the Woodsmen will likely be the first game played for the season on Friday July 10.

• Sherwood will host traditional rivals, the Mt Gravatt Vultures in Round 1, a welcome change after inexplicably heading to Dittmer Park for 5 consecutive seasons for a Round 1 fixture!

• There are still questions to be answered on match day protocols as restrictions continue to change, but limiting spectators at McCarthy Homes Oval may be very tricky as the ground is not an enclosed facility and can be accessed from 360 degrees

• Senior Coach Anthony McDonald and Exercise Physiologist and Strength & Conditioning Coach Daniel Robson-Petch have mapped out fitness programmes for all players and the players have sent in data throughout the shutdown period about their activities to monitor their progress. McDonald has been an inspired choice of coach in the pandemic as he has good communication skills and has worked hard to have his players as ready as can be for when the season starts. 

• McDonald has asked all his players to buy in to a “team first ethos” and to strive for excellence by respecting the club and your teammates  by not taking any shortcuts.  The acronym is BERG which stands for “Build Excellence Reach Glory”. Why BERG ? — The Berg has been the players’ nickname for the club premises for many years now.

• The club has been forced to make a coaching change due to the Covid-19 pandemic with Reserves coach Scott Hannan having to move from Toowoomba to North Western Queensland for employment reasons. The club has announced former player  Corey Hopkins as his replacement. Hopkins, who played at NEAFL level with Redland & Southport and had a stint in the SANFL, has been on the club’s coaching panel for the past 2 seasons and has a good football brain with excellent communication skills

• The clubs assistant coaches/line coaches for 2020 are 2019 Coach of the Year, David Hammill well supported by Quentin Johnson, Alex Mitchell and Brett Connell, while there will be some specialist development coaching from Justin Clarke & Gerard Moore among others.

• The social media presence of the club throughout the lockdown period and return to football as well as communications via the club newsletter has been first class. The COVID Safety posters using Sherwood players young and old to get the important messaging across with a dose of humour was highly amusing and more importantly, very effective.

• As the club prepares to return to football at all levels, a huge thanks should go to the hard working board lead by our Club President Andrew Thomson, along with many other volunteers working tirelessly to keep the club not just viable, but healthy.

• During the ‘no football period’ instead of enjoying a well earnt break, we have seen some excellent work sharing the club history, the near completion of new coaches boxes both home & away, the clubhouse roof is being replaced, a ballet studio(!) has been launched to maximise use of underutlised space, the club bistro has been re-launched, the bar has been revamped and so much more!

• Our new Director of Operations and also a club sponsor, Jie Walsh has been invaluable in his work within the licensed venue to maximise efficiency. Working alongside our new Venue Manager, John Simpson - the Magpie family won’t know themselves with new and improved menus for food and drink and friendly service with a smile that goes part and parcel with a family footy club.

• We can never speak enough about our volunteers who look after our playing surface. These lads do a marvellous job presenting such a great oval not just for our players, but also for the local community who were out in force during the shutdown. Big thanks the BBQ Mafia boys who feed them each Friday morning with Breakfast fit for a king!

• GUT Feelings has heard of an East Coast league proposed to include the AFL club Reserves – the 10 clubs in Victoria and x2 clubs in SE Queensland and x2 clubs in Sydney. This obviously has implications for the viability of the NEAFL this year but also in the future.

• The GUT Feelings crystal ball will suggest the NEAFL is  dead in the water and Redland and Aspley will re-join the QAFL in 2021 while Southport are  applying to be included in the East Coast league as either a stand alone club or in alignment with the Gold Coast Suns. 

• With NEAFL now officially cancelled for Season 2020, there is a flood of players on the market. While some clubs could be tempted to take a short term view, GUT Feelings is confident that Sherwood Football Club won’t lose sight of the big picture.

• Sherwood have 10 players from the club in the NEAFL such as Mitch Stallard, Caleb Franks, Dan Edwards and Billy Johnson at Redland, Cal Carseldine, Jackson Allen and Tom Baulch at Aspley, Bruce Reville at the Lions, Samson Ryan at Canberra and Riley Greene at Southport. Combined with a number of aligned players (no previous Sherwood affiliation) from Redland such as Matt Thomson, Stephen Mills, Scott Miller, Adrian Williams, Boyd Bailey and Harrison Kerr - suddenly the landscape changes significantly.

• Sherwood is proud family club with many club juniors part of the Senior program, and the arrival of potentially 16 players from the NEAFL could upset the balance. However, GUT Feelings is confident this will be managed appropriately and players will only be welcomed if there is an open discussion on 2021 intentions and beyond.

• It looks very likely that the junior football landscape has changed for 2020 as well. State and National Representative carnivals cancelled, academy games unlikely. With plenty of Sherwood players involved in academies, regional sides and likely would have gone onto state sides its a tough pill to swallow for the kids missing out on these memorable experiences in their formative footy lives. Good luck to recruiters at the draft, having not seen any underage footy in 2020!

• Also looks like divisional footy in the youth space is off, with youth football following junior guidelines and playing against local teams as opposed to being graded. Sherwood are so strong in a couple of age groups, we might end up with Sherwood vs Sherwood in one age group grand final if it heads that way!

• Rule changes, a pet topic of GUT Feelings! — 16 minute quarters—does not impact on QAFL football as play weekly and not 5 days apoart as may be the case in the AFL--  must be some element of fatigue nd a place for the big man who may lack a yeard in pace

• If need to reduce quarters then maybe settle on 18 minutes

• In light of Rugby League changes which have sped up the game then some simple changes will speed up our game—get rid of ruck nominations and it is simply one player each into the ruck and a third man up incurs a free kick—boundary umpires take 10-15 seconds to throw the ball in and ball ups can take too long—get the ball back into play as quickly as possible which will reduce crowding and speed up play. And it may result in more fatigue which then opens up the game as players struggle to get to the next contest. After all, once upon a time coaches would try to have their team fitter than the opposition so that later in the game they could get on top and their fitness advantage would result in a win.

• As for reducing teams to 16 per side, let’s take a deep breath and not alter the game too much. The game is fast enough if allowed to flow and a reduction in number of players in a team will result in the death of the big man who may lack a yard in pace but still offer a target in an 18  a side game. We still want to see a physical contest rather than a game of keepings off which may well be the result of a 16 a side match.