Kingborough not buying into Bombers belief ahead of TSL grand final
Kingborough coach Trent Baumeler has refused to buy into the belief that his side holds all the experience heading into Saturday’s TSL grand final.
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Kingborough coach Trent Baumeler has refused to buy into the belief that the Tigers are the far more experienced side heading into Saturday’s TSL grand final against North Launceston.
The state league’s two best sides all season are set to do battle at North Hobart from 2:30pm and while much has been made of the young Bombers playing group in 2023, the Tigers are far from a team of veterans themselves.
While the core of their group may have been together for a number of seasons’, the Tigers don’t have a player on their list over the age of 30 with inspirational skipper Lachie Clifford still just 23 and a number of players starting the year as teenagers.
Combine that with the fact that Saturday’s line-up will feature 10 players that didn’t run out on grand final day last year and the Bombers 22 will feature a number of multiple time premiership players, it makes it a hard sell to anyone to say Kingborough are miles ahead in the experience race.
“We’ve had a large turnover of players,” Baumeler said.
“I think it’s up to 10 guys that played in the grand final last year that aren’t with us (this year). But as we always do, we worry about who we are and not what the opposition thinks we are.
“We are comfortable in our own skin about what our team is. The new guys that we’ve brought in have been awesome. James Webb, James Zeitzen, Murray Bastick, Jake Williams and Nic Baker, those sorts of guys have been key contributors for us and the guys that have stuck around, the core that have been here for a long time, they’ve meshed together really well.
“North Launceston have got some great experience. I can’t count how many multiple premiership players they have out there. Brad (Cox-Goodyer), Alex (Lee), Ben (Simpson), Jack Avent and Connor Young so they have a lot of big game experience in their line up and across every line.
“When you look at the body of work across the whole season, both teams finished 13-5 within 2 percentage points of each other so I think it’s a totally even contest which will be really good.”
After winning their way through to last year’s decider via the preliminary final, Baumeler said it was a different experience this year having the week off.
“It has obviously been a different preparation for us from last year,” he said.
“Just having the time to process the qualifying final and a little bit of the season and then sit back and wait for who your opponent is and concentrate on that this week so it’s been nice.”
The Tigers lost last year’s decider to Launceston by 72 points but Baumeler said it wasn’t something that had been spoken about during the week.
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