Sunbury Kangaroos caretaker coach Jamie Cuffe believes his side can still do some damage in the RDFL this season

SUNBURY Kangaroos’ caretaker coach Jamie Cuffe believes his side has the ability to go deep into finals despite a bumpy first half of the Riddell District Football League season.

Sunbury Kangaroos caretaker coach Jamie Cuffe.

SUNBURY Kangaroos’ caretaker coach Jamie Cuffe believes his side has the ability to go deep into finals despite a bumpy first half of the Riddell District Football League season.

Cuffe, who co-coached the Kangaroos to their 2012 premiership, was last week appointed to the top job for the remainder of the season after Chris Meacham announced he would be stepping down to undergo major shoulder surgery following an accident on a property at Wallan on May 3.

The club hopes Meacham, 35, will return to the role next year but Cuffe said he was only too happy to stand in for his good mate for the time being.

“It’s not something you plan for at the start of the season and it’s not something the club would have had in mind,” he said.

“So we’ve got to make the best of a really bad situation.

“In 2012, I coached together with Chris and Chris was pretty happy for me to take over for the rest of the season so it just fell into place that way.”

After retiring last year, Cuffe returned to the field last weekend and laced up the boots once again against Lancefield on Saturday, a game the Kangaroos lost 4.4 (28) to 3.4 (22).

The veteran expects to continue playing some games in the back end of the season after admitting that he had recaptured the fire in his belly.

It is helping see the Kangaroos progress deep into finals that will be his biggest focus though, the fifth-placed side searching for some real improvement in the run home.

“I think we’ve seen most of the downside to it for the season already, so I think there’s a lot of upside for us,” Cuffe said.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we go with it and seeing how the young kids develop.

“At the end of the day the expectation is that Romsey is probably the best side in the comp at the moment and Riddell is always up there, they’re always hard to beat. So we’ve got to chase them.”