Stan’s Pre-Season Report on your Perth Thunder.
After a very successful campaign in 2013, all of the Thunder players understood the requirements and improvements they would need for this season to cement a spot on the 2014 playing roster.
Pre-season and tryouts started at a great pace with everyone turning up in good shape and ready to play. The squad is definately a lot deeper this year and a obviously more experienced. We also still have class players yet to arrive from overseas to join the squad in late April with one of those being crowd favorite – Rob Haselhurst, affectionately known as the MO.
The 4 new professional imports will be fantastic and all should hopefully join the squad just before the season opener on April 26 & 27. The delay is only due to the fact that they are now still in playoffs in North America.
To back up these signings, we have locals Greg Hyde and Simon Kudla, both very talented players that have returned to the squad adding more depth. In addition to this, add the likes of Shaun Tobin, Kieran Webster and Tomic Sakinclude from our young development guys who have shown great improvement this year, not only in skills, but also in strength … these young men are names to look out for and a few others are also knocking on the team door.
Perth Thunder have set their sights very high this season. We are again primarily focused on securing s finals birth first, then taking another step forward on 2013 targeting a berth in the AIHL Final.
From a spectators point, I would expect to see a fast paced more physical team on the ice this season and I am sure the fans will love the new imports we have secured. FYI – the 4 imports and their positions are … 2 Forwards a defence-man and a goalie.
On the whole, I believe each year we have stepped forward as a club both on and off the ice and this year should be no exception. The boys are training very hard and have a lot of confidence. Keep an eye out for updates soon and for some more very exciting news, we are working on some real show stoppers fro everyone!
Regards … STAN