RUGBY LEAGUE
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ALBURY coach Josh Cale is under no illusions when it comes to defending the Group Nine premiership this season.
Thunder swept to the title with a 36-26 victory over Southcity in September, but Cale believes the toughest task lies ahead.
With a target on their backs, Thunder are on a crusade to accomplish the kind of Group Nine domination Tumut experienced with back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008.
"I think if you go back and have a look at the previous winners not too many have gone back to back, I think only Tumut in the past 10 years," Cale told The Daily Advertiser yesterday.
"Southcity did a really good job last year to make it to the grand final and almost get us, they definitely set the bar.
"Hopefully we can scrub up all right, but we have our work cut out for us.
"Everyone wants to knock off the premiers."
Shaping up for a second helping of Group Nine glory, Cale believes the mission to the top of the competition will be harder than ever this year with most clubs naming high profile recruits in the off season.
In contrast, Thunder has remained quiet in the player market and has managed to retain most of its premiership-winning squad for this year.
"A lot of the clubs have been really active, but we had a decent team year last year so we tried to keep as many as we could and bring a couple of guys up from reserve grade," Cale said.
"No gains, but a couple of blokes turned up in town for work and have been training with us, I'm not sure how they go yet, though.
"Brett Biles has retired but I have an inkling he'll be back, and Steve Meredith and Ben Ryan also said that was it after last year, but they've been training with us so they could be back too.
"Chris Seaton is undecided, he's not sure if he'll go back to motorbikes this year or not.
"He's been training with us, but he's had a few offers to go back to bikes.
"He's just waiting to see if the right one comes along."
Thunder are yet to book in a trial game, but Cale said he was looking to lock in a date around two weeks before the start of the Group Nine preseason competition on March 30.
Thunder began preseason training before Christmas and resumed with the first session of the year last night.
- Want the draw for the pre-season competition? Here it is.