As the Goulburn Swans await an opportunity to hold their 2021 presentation night, coach Simon Treloar reflected with pride on what his side achieved this year.
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Though the end of the Swans' season was truncated due to a number of washouts and COVID-19 related cancellations, the growth within the team pleased Treloar.
Having begun the year as a very young side with little football experience, the players' improvement both in terms of their skill levels and their cohesion as a team exceeded the coach's expectations.
"I think that they went better than I was expecting at the start of the year, especially after the first few rounds," Treloar said.
"To see how passionate they were and how their love for the game grew really quickly, when we had washouts and forfeits they were quite annoyed and just wanted to play footy, it was great to see.
"For a lot of blokes that hadn't played a lot of footy before this year, it was great to see they were enjoying their football."
Ahead of the 2021 season, Treloar had decided to focus on building the team's base football skills and have fun instead of aiming for wins.
Next year he intends to switch the emphasis of his coaching to gameplans and tactics, now that the team has nailed down the basics of the game.
"We've definitely got to come up with a few strategies on how we're going to approach different games," Treloar said.
"As we saw this year, the skills got much better, so now it's time to come up with a game plan and really implement that as the boys start to grow together.
"I really saw that gel towards the end of the year with how well the players were playing together. As the next couple of years come, we can come up with a really solid game plan and come up with a style of footy that works well for us."
As one of the youngest teams in the competition, Treloar is looking to gradually build up the side's skills and confidence in the coming years, with the goal of a possible finals run in 2023.
Should they keep on track, he said, that should set the stage for a Swans team which could play together for another five years at least.
But before any of that takes place, the next objective the club is focused on is its presentation night, which was originally scheduled to take place at the start of September until the COVID-19 lockdowns forced its postponement.
Now, Treloar said, the Swans are waiting on restrictions to ease, with the hope of holding it sometime in November.
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