Player Column – Ryan Cook Round 4

OUR 2016 season has started exactly how we would have liked. As a club it is the perfect start and to have all three grades going three from three just shows we are headed in the right direction.

I believe there are a number of reasons why this is the case. The club has got great people involved with it from the board level to the players and coaches and our support staff. We have developed a one club culture where everyone feels like they belong which goes a long way to getting everyone working towards our goal of winning premierships.

We are into our second year under Coach Todd Curley and believe we understand his message and style now really well as a group and feel if we go through the processes that have been put in place by him and the other coaches and execute our style more than not we will be singing the song at the end of the game.

We had another huge pre-season on the back of last year’s which I believe has held us in good stead. To use a Michael Voss quote, “The harder you work the luckier you get” I think that our work ethic over those four months was first class and has been well transitioned into our regular season games.

The squad sat down towards the end of the pre-season and picked players on a 5-1 voting system to form our leadership group. What was exciting about the process was that it was the first time in my six years here that we had so many candidates to form the group.

There ended up being around 15-20 guys who had earned their teammates respect over the previous months which is a huge plus for our group. The leaders have been very demanding and our aim is to not let this waiver over the course of the season.

As we know we were in this same position last season and if we are honest we probably got a bit complacent and took our foot of the pedal in a few areas. We have to keep working hard on our game both as a team and individually and keep trying to get the best out of each other.

This weekend we head to Lathlain Park to take on Perth Football Club who are a much improved side and have a lot of quality throughout. Make sure you get down to support the boys and hopefully we can get a win to all three grades.

Go Dogs!