With three losses in the last four weeks, Ag College has been put on notice.
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It’s time to be better.
The university club sits outside the top five and communication is the key to getting things back on track according to coach Will Mitchell.
“We had a team meeting on Tuesday instead of training just to figure out where are going wrong and our weaknesses are,” Mitchell said.
“We’ve identified, pretty clearly, that our communication is no where near up to par.
“Effective communication more so than anything else and we’ve put a big focus on that.”
The university club is currently sixth, but Mitchell has his sights firmly on the top three.
He’s looking to win seven of there next nine clashes to do so and starts on Saturday with a clash against university rivals CSU at Beres Ellwood Oval.
Returning from an overseas trip, Mitchell has made a number of changes.
The biggest is at halfback with Cameron Duffy moving from inside centre to halfback in place of Jeremy Lim.
Lim has been struggling with a knee injury and Mitchell wants to give him the time to get it right.
“He knee is still no good,” he said.
“He’ll probably be a couple of weeks away and it is a long season so we will try and get that right.
“Cam has really good chat, is a good leader around the paddock and has a pretty good pass.
“We’ve put him to nine and we are confident we will do really well.”
It means Joe Hamblin has moved into inside centre with Will Whitely on the wing.
Rob Wiltshire has also come in for Sam Scarlett at hooker.
Mitchell believes Wiltshire can add to an already potent front row.
“Rob has been playing some good footy in twos and brings a bit more size in our forward pack,” he said.
“He’s a good ball runner and it gives us another option.”
Meanwhile CSU is out to spoil the party.
The university club hasn’t won since 2015, but coach Mark Fisher believes they are building towards better results.
He’s hoping having a few players back and the prospect of getting the better of their university rivals will be the perfect mix.
“We are looking good at the moment,” Fisher said.
“We’ve got a few boys back from injury and the boys are looking forward to the match.
“They’ve been talking about it since straight after the game against Waratahs.
“They were really into what we’ve got to do and what to fix.”
Dugald Robertson and Brad Crawford come back into the forward pack.