Daniel Lawrence has already begun planning Tolland’s next Pascoe Cup campaign after extending his stay as men’s head coach at Kessler Oval.
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The Wolves junior was lured from Wagga United to take the reins last season and excelled in the top job, steering the side to a top-three finish before bowing out in the elimination finals to her former club.
Now with his maiden year of coaching behind him, Lawrence has inked a new deal with Tolland and will again head up the club’s first grade premiership tilt in 2019.
“When I first got into the role, we looked at negotiating another year if both parties were happy and that was the case after this season,” Lawrence said.
“It’s not a set amount of years and we’re playing it by ear, but I’m keen to go around again next year and the club was happy for met to do that as well.”
The Wolves went win-for-win with eventual premiers Lake Albert before slumping in the back half of the season and Lawrence is eager to tap into the club’s full potential next year.
“We’ll be retaining most of our playing group from last year and I think we’ve got plenty of talent to work with – it’s just about keeping everyone on the paddock.”
“It’s pretty well known that we had injuries in the back half of the year and there were a lot of unseen issues like losing Matt Kleine with his pre-booked shoulder surgery that probably hurt us.
“We might try to look at reaching out to fill a few key positions but we’ll see how it goes.”
Bolstering the squad’s defensive unit is playing on Lawrence’s mind after a year that saw 49 goals conceded during the regular season.
Throw in the four goals conceded in their elimination final loss and Tolland’s overall season average of 2.79 goals against per game leaves plenty of room for improvement.
“The amount of goals we conceded probably wasn’t good enough in the end, so we’d definitely look at fixing up our defence,” Lawrence said.
“On paper, I think we had a great back line, but we need to get better in that department, so we’ll definitely be having a big pre-season and making sure we get those guys ready for a big year.”
“I’ll probably also be looking at getting in another central defender and maybe another bloke up front in attack who can be a target and free up some space for Jobi (Jaiden O’Brien).”
Lawrence will hope to emulate the success of Tolland’s female sides, both of whom clinched premierships this year.
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