ORANGE Barbarians captain-coach Jason McClymont is hoping his 2014 squad will return next season and continue to build as a Centennial Coal Cup force.
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Riddled by injury and the inconsistency that’s born from a host of the club’s squad on shift work, the Barbars failed to make a real impact on the 2014 Group 10 second division competition, finishing the regular season with two wins and nine losses to land in seventh on the ladder.
But, with most of this year’s squad set to return, McClymont was confident 2015 will be a different story.
“It wasn’t a bad season, but we didn’t get the results we wanted,” the first-year captain-coach said.
“We’ve got half a team of shift workers so we never had our full team on the paddock. But everyone is keen to come back next year. It’s a young club and we’re still building.”
Out of contention for a place in the finals, the Barbarians ended 2014 on a high note with a 56-18 victory over Villages United.
But McClymont said consistency was the biggest killer of his side’s season.
“We were patchy one week then strong the next,” he continued.
“But we’ll work on recruiting a few blokes to fill a couple of gaps and go from there next year.”
McClymont named Wayne Miller and Hena Farrow his side’s best throughout the season.
“Wayne was great for us but picked up an injury mid-way through the season and didn’t play again. Hena Farrow was another, he picked up a different job and had to leave three-quarters of the way through the year,” he added.
“All of the boys stood up though. We were short most weeks.”
McClymont said CSU Yellow was the most likely team to win the 2014 competition.
“They were the best team on paddock this year. They’re young, fit and play good structures,” he said of this year’s minor premiers.
“They’ll be tough to beat.”
Blackheath hosts CSU Blue in the CCC preliminary final on Saturday.
The winner will play CSU Yellow in a fortnight’s time in the grand final at Diggings Oval.