Cameron returns to the top gig at Young, sets sights on finals berth

The club stalwart said he's excited to step into the role, after planning to work with the third grade side this season.

After 2023 coach John Speering informed the club he would not be available for the 2024 season, Cameron put his hand up for the role having last coached the side two years ago.

"I'm really, really looking forward to it," Cameron said.

"We're working on getting a few players, we're already back to training, which is good and we will be pushing for that finals spot this year."

With six wins and three draws in 2023, Young missed out on the Pascoe Cup finals series by one ladder position.

Expecting to retain at least 50 per cent of their 2023 squad, Cameron said it can be hard to keep from falling into a rebuild every other year as a small club.

Determined to build a strong senior team through supporting their juniors to make the transition up, Cameron said maintaining a core group of players helps keep momentum.

"Being a small town club a lot of players go to uni and all that sort of stuff, so we're not quite in a rebuilding year, we'll still have a good base from players from last year," he said

"We've always been really focused on making sure that we don't fall into that rebuilding year as it obviously is tough, and it can be tough to get out of.

"To keep that base of players around each year and then to bring up those junior players is really important for us."

With 26 players attending their first preseason run last week, and Cameron pushing to go to twice a week training from Tuesday, he feels he is setting the side up for success.

Holding high expectations of the squad, he wants to see them in finals come the end of the year.

A handful of pre-Christmas runs and the town social competition has helped keep players engaged in the club over the off-season.

Pleased with the team's first round of matches last year, Cameron is hoping to avoid a second round slump in 2024.

"John had those boys at the halfway point last year in the top four and they just sort of fell off slowly in the second half of the year and it'd just be really important to kick on and start strong and obviously finish strong this year," he said.

"Sort of like what Tolland did last year, I don't think many people expected Tolland to go as well as they did, but they just constantly ground it out and got where they were because they've done all the hard yards at the start of the season.

"It's not about constantly changing things up but just making sure that everyone's excited and wanting to be there, I think that's the hardest part.

"It is such a long season and a couple results in May go against you and it can turn people off and it's hard to get them going again.

"I'll be changing training up, making sure it's not the same thing week in week out, doing social events, I think it just keeps people interested."