THE Bendigo Pioneers hit the road during the week, bringing both their under 19 boys’ and girls’ squads to Nyah for a whole-club training session.
Joining in training were several local players, including Charlie King, Charlie Boulton, Mitch Uhlhorn and Koben Ryan, along with Issy Boulton, who trained alongside locals Brydi Lewis and Sophie McClelland with the girls’ squad under coach Whitney Kennedy.
Boys’ team coach Danny O’Bree, a former Nyah-Nyah West United premiership player, ran the boys’ session, with the purpose of the day to provide the playing group with the opportunity to train together as a group during the school holidays.
“It was player-led and leader-led initiative,” O’Bree said.
“We have a leadership meeting every fortnight and the leaders wanted to have a training session in our region so that everyone from our (area) could attend.
“With our region being so vast, it can be really taxing on some of our kids, so to have a training session central and allow everyone from Mildura, Echuca, Swan Hill to attend was the purpose.
“The kids and particularly the leaders deserve the credit, both the boys’ and girls’ leaders got together and wanted to include everyone – to have it in a neutral facility is great, and personally, it’s always good to come home.”
The session continued the Pioneers’ emphasis on becoming an organisation that represents not only the Bendigo region, but the north-western catchment.
It follows last season’s match against the Calder Cannons played in Swan Hill.
The Pioneers boys’ team sit mid-table this season, with three wins from their eight matches, after suffering a 63-point loss to the Northern Knights last weekend.
While not everything went to plan for the team last Sunday, O’Bree is hopeful of turning things around against the Murray Bushrangers, with the younger members of their squad to get their opportunity to impress in the absence of Vic Country players Harley Reid, Oliver Poole, Oskar Smart and Archer Day-Wicks.
“We started the season really well and tried to give our top-age players a good go at the start so they could put their hand up to play at the next level,” O’Bree said.
“There haven’t been too many players on our list that haven’t played at least one game, we’ve been able to bring in a significant number of first-gamers over our last four or five matches.
“It’s been really pleasing to give everyone an opportunity and we’ve got a couple more to go in the next couple of weeks.
“The other big positive is several of our bottom-age players have played a good number of minutes, so they understand what’s required at this level, so they can go back to their local clubs and try and build towards their draft year next year as well.”
For O’Bree and Pioneers talent operations lead Rick Coburn it was a chance to return home to the club where they received their start in the sport, and embrace their own journey.
“I remember when I was nine or 10 years old, and I was too young to play, and our coach Patty Blake was good enough to put me on the ground,” O’Bree said.
“I wore No.45, which was obviously ‘Snail’ Henson’s number, and I was really proud of that.
“When the idea came up we thought we could engage with NNW United – it was obviously something that (Coburn) and I were pretty happy with and pretty proud to bring our players up to our region and to our home roots.
“I’m pretty keen to catch up with a few old mates afterwards – and it’s always good to come back home.”
