Press releases: I.1 (United Kingdom)

Sitting here in the manager's office I thought I'd pen our annual review and let's see how things are going !

Well, coming up from the second tier we knew we were going to be in with a much harder campaign this year and it certainly proved to be.

Our core field players; Keene, Palmer, lewis and 'Gaby' are starting to specialise and those transitions from 'Hybrid' to 'Special Team' are starting to pay dividends.

Our opinion is that it's important for each player to have a decent base in most of the skills before they specialise. And the players that we are bringing in are either solid prospects or experienced special team players.

Only one serious injury this year. Gulan went down before the Playoff semi's and we had to look to Abodi and Bada to step up with Palmer dropping back into defense. As it happened although we lost the semi's the youngsters grabbed the chance well and they will be in rotation next season for sure.

Our ever impressive captain tore through the playoffs, looking at the stats over all post season in all his games, he dominated. And Jonathon was certainly the deciding factor in the third place match(s) with Ross's Cannon Fodder.

I think we really stole the third place trophy in truth. Cannon Fodder's unparalleled European run certainly affected his stamina and at the end there we took advantage, if only just over three very close games.

We take great pride in our team. Our season objectives was to get to the semi's at least and take that third place trophy and we did it. Captain Keene again was voted our player of the year and just behind him in fan's votes was Lloyd Palmer. Lloyd's ever presence on the right wing and his vital goals and timing was there all throughout the long campaign.

So, next season. What do we hope for..?

Well, we have some amazing prospects that will take the field, look out for Zec and Vareka next season !!

Sadly Matty Marsh decided that he wanted move abroad and he left us. I think he knew that Gulan had his place in the team and that's the nature of things.

Next year, a huge stadium upgrade on the cards. New players to wear the black and gold and hopefully another trophy to polish !

That's all for now, best wishes

Nigel

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