Enjoying cricket is the key to success, according to new Wagga RSL coach Neil Morton, so that is what he is looking to bring.
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After more than 25 years with the club, Morton has decided the time is right to coach.
Bringing a wealth of experience, Morton is looking to guide a rebuilding Bulldogs outfit back up the ladder.
While stepping up to the role, but doesn’t expect to much to change since taking over from Shaun Perry.
“Nothing is going to change out of the ordinary, but I am putting back into the club,” Morton said.
“I’ve been helping out the last few years and thought I’d take the role on still with the help of a few senior players.”
The Bulldogs have only won one game over the past two seasons.
But after a disastrous 2015-16 season Morton believes they showed plenty of improvement last season.
He is looking for the team to continue to build and move back up the ladder.
“All I want to promote in the club is mainly enjoyment,” Morton said.
“I think if you have a good environment, where people want to come to training and want to play, it leads to success.
“So firstly I want to instigate that feeling around the club and hopefully it will push success along the way.”
With a win over then defending premiers Lake Albert plus a draw with eventual finalists South Wagga to their credit last season, Morton believes there is plenty to work with.
“We were competitive in every game bar the first game of the season,” he said.
“We only needed a couple of results to go our way and we would have played finals.
“We are not far off, we just have to take that next step and start believing in ourselves a little bit. Once we get that belief we should start the way we want to go.”
At this stage there has been little personnel change within the playing ranks.
No-one has left the club and while the Bulldogs are working on attracting some new players, at this stage there is no real signings to speak of either.
Morton played in nine first grade matches last season but is yet to decide whether he will play on again.
“I’m undecided at this stage,” he said.
“The way I feel at the moment it is a no but I’ve said I’m not going to play for the last five or six seasons and I always end up playing.”
Morton joined the Bulldogs in 1990, two years after moving to Wagga.
He was originally with Thomas Blamey before they amalgamated with RSL.
The Wagga cricket season starts with a Twenty20 competition on October 7 before the one-dayers start on October 28.