Ag College has lost four of its best and most experienced players in a horror off-season but coach Nick McCarthy remains positive.
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Representative quartet Ben Leaper, Tom Dunstan, Stu Garrett and Sam Hobbs lead the list of players to depart Ag College since failing to make the top division finals last year.
They have been joined by regular first graders Chris Leaper, Tom Hobbs and Ollie Connell who have left the club while Keifer Power has indicated he is returning to rugby league.
Ag College struggled at the back end of the season but McCarthy is confident it won’t all be doom and gloom following the key departures.
“It will be a big change up this year but we are excited about it still,” McCarthy said.
Four players, the Hobbs brothers, Dunstan and Connell, have all made the switch to rivals Waratahs.
The move of Dunstan and Connell to Waratahs came as a surprise to the coach but McCarthy understands senior players wanting to move away from a club focused on young talent.
“I’m not going to jump up and down for blokes wanting to leave the club for those sort of reasons,” he said.
“It’s the way of rugby at the uni club and the way it has been since Waratahs were established.
“Blokes complete their uni degree then move on.
“I’d prefer to have 35 or 40 18 to 22-year-olds who are all really excited about playing for Ag College than half a dozen egos who prefer to be somewhere else.”
Aggies have acquired Sterling Ross from CSU but the star number eight is the only confirmed new face.
The club returned to training last week but McCarthy isn’t expecting to get a real indication of what players will be available until uni returns in late February.
