 |
ARGY-BARGY:
Army players (red) couldn’t contend with Navy’s aggression at last year’s
ADF Australian Football championship when Navy ended Army’s 18-year grasp
on the title. Photo: ABPH Kade Rogers |
By CPL Damian Shovell
Defending
the Australian Football championship title in its twentieth anniversary year is
the challenge laid down for Navy’s top AFL team in 2006, in what’s being
predicted to be the strongest ADF competition ever.
Navy ended Army’s
18-year grasp of the premiership title in 2005, winning back the title Navy had
only ever won once before when the title was first contested in 1987.
Coach
PO Michael Oleksyn, a member of the original winning team in ’87 and who
last year coached the side to victory, will this year be joined by a new co-coach
CPO Jamie McGinley, who predicted a tough challenge ahead to retain the trophy.
“Navy
has never, ever, successfully defended the cup - we’ve won it twice, but
never defended it,” he said.
He said the quality of last year’s competition
is a measure of what to anticipate.
“Air Force were unlucky to lose
to Army, and Navy did beat [Army], so it’s going to make for a very good
competition in the next couple of years,” CPO McGinley said.
“We
hope to field a stronger and fitter side than we did last year, and certainly
those who played last year have a taste for the minimum standard that they need
to be at to be competitive.
“Obviously Army will come back a lot stronger,
certainly for losing, and Air Force, who were very close to beating Army, certainly
want a taste because they’ve never won the carnival.
“They’re
working very hard behind the scenes not just to be competitive, but to really
give the carnival a nudge themselves.”
CPO McGinley said it would
be difficult to identify what changes might occur in the team this early in the
season, but said he was confident that the lessons learnt by the 2005 team will
carried forward.
He said a comprehensive lead-up to the national competition
in April has again been structured to pick the best of Navy’s AFL talent,
which will start with the Father MacDonald Cup on February 17.
“We
will select from that carnival the sides to represent Maritime and Systems Command
for the Inter-Command Challenge in March,” he said.
He said that from
the sides competing in Inter-Command Challenge, the teams would be selected for
interservice competition, and that after that carnival the national squad would
be announced.
Additionally, the Navy women’s team is in its second
year, and under guidance of CPO Rowan Jennings is looking to continue its winning
form after defeating Air Force by 20 points at last year’s national competition.
“They’re
really keen to give Army a shake and make a really competitive women’s competition,”
CPO McGinley said.
Additionally, Navy and Air Force are negotiating with the
Hawthorn Football Club to play a curtain-raiser on the MCG on May 19.
