PRE SEASON UPDATE WITH COLTS COACH BRAD DODD

Pre-season for the Peel Thunder Colts 2018 campaign kicked off on Thursday the 23rd of November with a 2km running test. It was a fairly even performance across the group with Jake Howes, Reece Harris, Bradley Oldfield and Zach Rankin excelling. 

We have now completed our first full week of training. The boys are training 3 nights a week with a strong focus on skill fundamentals, strength and ball movement. The standard from the group has been excellent- competition for spots in the squad will be tight but all the players are certainly putting their best foot forward. 

The 2018 coaching panel is now complete. Jayden Heuer returns as the Forwards Coach, Michael McCann joins us as Midfield Coach and Danny Chartres is our Backs Coach. Michael coached at East Perth Colts last season under new Swan Districts coach, Adam Pickering while Danny Chartres enters his second year coaching at the club, having been part of the Senior program last year.

The Colts program has also invested heavily in its South West zone, with the appointment of Garry Dyer as our South West Coach, supported by Peter Morrissey. The set up allows our South West prospects to train closer to home while still getting the adequate development required to perform and compete at WAFL Colts level. John Deitz has once again assembled a strong squad as Talent Manager, while Tim Overington is back on board as Team Manager. Strength and Conditioning is run by Mason Gittins. Like all good S&C, he’s already challenging the group physically and mentally. The club has invested heavily in its gym- providing a fantastic work area for weights. It’s a renewed focus for the Colts group.

As we close in on the half way mark of the pre-Xmas phase, training will ramp up before we break on Tuesday 19th December. 

Congratulations to Aaron Naughton on being selected in the AFL Draft by the Western Bulldogs. We all look forward to following your career closely. To those that missed out, I look forward to you striving to get better and improving in the year ahead. The door most definitely isn’t shut. 

Brad Dodd

Peel Thunder Colts Coach