The Raptors Men's kick off their 2024/25 League Campaign on Saturday, We caught up with DoF & Head Coach, Kim Grant:
1. How has the preseason training been, and what are the main areas you focused on?
It's been pretty tough in terms of personnel and not really having enough friendly games - due to the short timeframe for both training and matches before season starts on August the 10th. I focused on mainly getting those who were available on conditioning & fitness work and technical training aspects.
2. Are there any changes in the team's tactical approach this season?
It’s been tough to implement due to the lack of players as the majority are on their holidays so until I have all the squad together I will mainly focus on fitness and some tactical organisation as team I’m able too; but I will try to implement new tactical structures to be more effective in transitional attacking phases.
3. What are the key areas of improvement you've identified from last season?
We have been lucky this year as majority of our strong players have decided to stay with us but we really need to improve in the final attacking third to be more clinical and turn draws into wins and have a more consistency of not changing players all the time due to injuries, suspensions, and players being away, this will certainly help with the team dynamics. Also we will look to be more solid defensively as we were sloppy in certain areas defensively as a team.
4. What are your primary goals for the team this season?
GET PROMOTED!
5. How do you assess the competition in the league this year?
We have 5 new teams competing in our league so they will be strong but still unknown quantity and for the rest, they know our strengths and capabilities so every team will look to stop us this year after our successful run. It will be a challenge and tougher this year but we have to focus on our own performance and go game-by-game. The first round of the league season is always challenging as we miss a lot of players with long-term injuries and holidays.
6. What lessons have you learned from past seasons that will influence your approach this year
Definitely to be more clinical and kill games off, plus also making sure we turn those draws we had into wins. We certainly improved as a team collectively and compared to previous seasons we have a team that has more quality to manage & see-out games. The mentality of my players is much more united as to our objectives, ambitions, and goals going into the new season
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