Shooter Brodie Sharpe is one of three Keilor Thunder players who have retired prior to the coming season. 50653 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By Adem Saricaoglu
KEILOR Thunder men’s coach Peter Jukes says he is very confident his side will be playing in this season’s Big V division two grand final series.
The Thunder finished sixth in 2011 with 15 wins and seven losses and got knocked out of the finals in week one, however Jukes said his new-look line-up for 2012 should perform a lot better.
“We have got a real showing to win it all this year,” he said.
“We should finish in the top two, and really we should get through to the grand final.”
The 2012 team will have a number of new faces following the retirements of Joel Leebody, Joel Smith and Brodie Sharpe.
Jukes said he plans to add a new dimension to Keilor’s game with the arrival of new players.
“We’ve gone back to some of the players we brought through our juniors program that we hope will add some speed and strength,” he said.
“So now we’ve really got a mixture of some of the older blokes and a bit of youth.”
Meanwhile women’s coach Steve Toy is also confident of his team’s chances this season after taking the Thunder to the division two premiership with a come-from-behind 2-1 series win over Blackburn last year.
He said the focus this year would be to build from the momentum gathered from last season.
“We’re looking to pick up the tempo this season so we’re working pretty hard on that at the moment,” Toy said.
“We’re trying to build up our fitness so that we can reach the level we want to get to.”
Toy said the club had also been actively recruiting players for the women’s team, revealing two new names for the 2012 line-up – including former Whittlesea player Sally Braybon and youngster Danica Pedersen.
The Big V season is due to tip off in March.
