And while the season opener often has players itching to get back onto the field, that won’t quite be the case for Rochy come Saturday.
“We’re missing half our team, they’ve all got footy trips on,” Rochester A-grade coach Jake Wright said.
“We’ve got about six blokes to name I reckon.”
A severely impacted pre-season, during which Wright said he has “had about five blokes for the whole year at training,” has left the A-grade side teetering come round one.
“We should be able to field a side (on Saturday), but it depends how strong it’s going to be,” Wright said.
Wright, who is entering his first season coaching at Rochester after a few years of playing at Mooroopna, is expecting the returning Tongala side to be a tough opponent in week one.
“We expect them to be pretty handy with a few of the boys coming back from Ky into the Tonny team,” he said.
“With (Darin) Ohlsen, Ohlsen’s probably the best bowler in the league, so it’s probably not ideal to come against him first up.”
Despite the forecast for round one looking grim for Rochester, there is still optimism that the side will be able to contend for finals, which they missed last season, with “most of” last year’s crop of players to come back into the fold at some point, according to Wright.
“We’ll definitely be trying to push for finals, definitely,” he said.
“When we have our full side in, I think we are probably the strongest in the league. That’s just if everyone plays in that one week.”
Dylan Cuttriss will once again captain the club’s top senior side, while Rochester has also expanded to field a senior women’s side this season, leading to a positive feeling at the club.
“Everyone’s pretty excited,” Wright said.
“It’s just getting everyone on the park at once is the hard part at the moment.”
Rochester’s A-grade side get their season underway this Saturday at Rochester Recreation Reserve against Tongala, with the match set to commence at 12pm.
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