Bombers coach to stay for TSL’s final year as young gun returns
The TSL’s reigning coach of the year has confirmed he will again coach the Bombers next season, while a former Matthew Richardson Medallist will also return to North Launceston.
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North Launceston coach Brad Cox-Goodyer has confirmed he is poised to stay at the helm next year for the TSL’s final season.
And the Bombers will welcome back prime mover Michael Stingel from Norwood, helping offset the loss of co-captain Ben Simpson to the SANFL club.
Cox-Goodyer was named playing coach in the TSL’s team of the year after guiding the Bombers to the grand final, where they lost to Kingborough.
He has made no secret of his aspirations to coach at the highest level he can. Understandably, he will only commit to North Launceston for next year given Tasmanian football’s landscape will change markedly from 2025 onwards.
“I’m all good to go (coach North Launceston) on my end,” Cox-Goodyer said.
“There’s still a bit of water to go under the bridge yet, but at this stage I’ll be going around again and for the one year.
“Obviously no one knows what the landscape’s going to look like, I’m not going to knuckle down to anything because there could be ten different options I can do after next year.”
The departure of Simpson, who finished second in this year’s Alastair Medal voting and tied with fellow co-skipper Alex Lee to claim his first best and fairest, will leave a big hole.
But the return of half-back Stingel, who claimed the Richardson Medal in 2021 awarded to the TSL’s rookie of the year, is a big coup.
The 21-year-played played one VFL game for North Melbourne in 2022 and played one senior game for Norwood.
Injuries have hampered him the past couple of years, but when fit he has proven himself to be one of the best ball users in the league.
“He made the TSL team of the year in his first senior year (2021),” Cox-Goodyer said.
“He had an injury interrupted 2022, he had ankle syndesmosis and tore his quad.
“He headed over to Norwood and played SANFL senior footy, and got a few injuries again this year.
“Michael hasn’t had a good run of it, but he’s a super talent.”
Cox-Goodyer said they were in talks with other players on potentially joining next year.
“We’re talking to a few. I’m pretty comfortable with what we’ve got but hopefully we can get a couple of experienced players over the line in areas we need them,” he said.
Cox-Goodyer said the playing group is leaving nothing to chance as they look to end the TSL era with a premiership.
“The boys are pretty hungry, they’re all getting stuck into the gym and running sessions. They’re a self motivating group so it’s pretty easy for me to keep on top of them,” he said.
“It’s just another year of development into their young bodies. The maturity this year which got us into a grand final, they’ve all had that now so there’s no excuses for next year.
“With Lauderdale going fairly hard and getting some pretty good players in, the competition’s going to be better than ever I think.
“Even though we mae a grand final we definitely can’t just rest on those laurels and we need to keep improving.”
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