Thunder coaches eager to build squad

Thunder women's coaches aim to blend youth with experience to creat competitive team.

FOOTBALL: The 2018 NPLW season was challenging for the SWQ Thunder senior women.

Forced to blood young and inexperienced players, the team was only able to secure three wins.

They did, however, show glimpses of real potential with new coaches Craig Lockwood and Anthony Bigby hoping to build on the platform laid out by previous Thunder mentor Scott Teakle.

"We didn't quite get the results we were chasing last year," Lockwood said.

"So improvement on last year is obviously vital.

"Scott did a really good job with the girls and Anthony and I can build on that.

"We'd love to finish higher this season."

IN CHARGE: Craig Lockwood (left) and Anthony Bigby will coach the South West Queensland Thunder senior women in the 2019 NPL season. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Helping that development will be the return of a number of former Thunder players and the fact the club's young stars have a year of NPLW experience under their belt.

"Nothing beats experience especially at the NPL level," Lockwood said.

"It's important to have those (experienced) girls there.

"We were forced to blood a lot of younger girls last season - stepping up from the under-17s.

"They did a really good job and now know what is required at that level.

"Having the older girls here to help them out is a positive thing. The future looks good."

Co-coach Bigby shares Lockwood's positivity.

"This season I think we're going to try and surprise a few people," he said.

"We've got good players, a good plan and I think we've put together a pretty good coaching team.

"Our job is to try and build a good team out of those good players.

"I think we can expect good things."

While much of the Thunder's pre-season will focus on fitness, Bigby said they were acutely aware they must be better in defence this season.

"We've got a lot of work to do getting the team ready mentally and physically as well as tactically," Bigby said.

"The reality is we need to improve our defending. Tactically we need to get that end of our game right.

"We know we can score goals against pretty much every team in the competition and we can get ourselves right defensively we can unleash the beast going forward."

Both coaches also believe their partnering roles will only benefit the team.

"We worked well together with other teams a couple of years ago," Bigby said.

"On the pitch sometimes you need a different voice. Sometimes what works for one player might not work for another."

"I think we will work well together," Lockwood said. "Technically Anthony knows what he's talking about.

"I've come up through the age groups, under-15s and U17s, a lot of the younger ones I've coached before. Anthony knows the open women well.

"With both of us there it gives us a good balance."

Craig Lockwood (left) and Anthony Bigby will coach the South West Queensland Thunder senior women for the 2019 NPL season, Monday, October 15, 2018. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Originally published as Thunder coaches eager to build squad