As a club, CSU understands the value of Daniel Kerr’s guest appearance for the Bushpigs in late April.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But as coach, Daniel Athanitis knows there has to be a lot more to their season than one game from an ex-West Coast Eagles star.
More than 50 players at the two pre-season trainings this week – including a brutal session on Thursday night – suggests they’re on the right track.
“We already had a lot of blokes mark their interest before (Kerr) came up so I don’t think that made a difference, but it's exciting, they’ve been talking about it a fair bit,” Athanitis said.
With the usual influx of students in the last couple of weeks, the Bushpigs will benefit from a later start.
Their first game is at Temora on April 22, a week before Kerr rolls into town for the Friday night fixture against East Wagga-Kooringal.
After earning respect last season, but returning only two wins, Athanitis said expectation hovers.
“We can probably put a bit more pressure on ourselves to win games… We want to play finals,” he said.
“There’s no point turning up each summer if you think you can’t play finals, so that’ll be our aim.”
The Bushpigs retain the majority of their players. With a young group, Athanitis is hoping for iprovement from players who are still green in terms of senior football, including defender Diarmid Cleary, ruckman Dom Smith, midfielder Rob Herzfeld and forwards Alex Reilly and Tom Jeffery.
He’s also confident this year’s uni arrivals will unearth some talent.
And that will be a care-factor when it comes to the Kerr-factor – hoping they can learn from one of the top footballers of his era.
“He’s only a few years older than me so I grew up watching him – he was a brilliant player,” Athanitis said.
“People say he’s put on weight but if he’s put on weight, I’ll go heave, because he looked pretty good.”
But for now, the heaving is left to the players being hammered in pre-season.