Booth Praises Players’ COVID Commitment As Season Restart Looms
Capalaba FC coach David Booth believes his players’ hard work through the COVID shutdown puts them in good stead ahead of their National Premier Leagues season restart.
The gaffer’s insight comes as his side put the final touches on their preparations ahead of their first competitive fixture since March.
The Bulldog’s will host last year’s Grand Finalists, Olympic FC, at John Fredericks Park on Saturday evening in an immediate test of their mettle and togetherness through the difficulties of the COVID shutdown.
With a trio of friendlies against lower-tier opponents under their belt in recent weeks, Booth said he feels his side are ready to continue their maiden NPL campaign.
“We had to wait for the clearances to play full contact football and once that came through we played against local teams in Wolves and Holland Park Hawks,” Booth explained.
“Those games helped us get closer to the mark we need to be at - the performances weren’t bad and we created lots of scoring opportunities.”
“It also gave us a great chance to get plenty of minutes for our Under 20’s players in the senior team. It’s important we gauge them at this time because they will be important to us with the tighter scheduling and workloads going forward.”
Amongst the initiatives that have laid the groundwork for a successful return to fixtures was ensuring players were motivated and tracked by the Bulldogs coaching staff through their individual routines during the shutdown.
“We set up an app to follow the players fitness training. We set them targets that they needed to be at when they came back to team training,” Booth said.
“Ensuring everyone was motivated, including myself, was a challenge. It was so open-ended and we weren’t really sure we would be coming back at all.
“So it was very pleasing that they turned up pretty fit when team training returned and almost immediately we were back into the football specific work which was very important.”
With two wins and two draws from their opening four fixtures earlier in the season, Booth remains confident his side have what it takes to retain their place in the NPL over the coming months after earning promotion to the state’s top flight last season.
However, he conceded there will be plenty of ups-and-downs as his side, and opposing clubs, adapt to the compacted playing schedule and COVID impacts on their respective seasons.
“Every club has suffered through the same thing and the form book has really gone out the window.
“Some big clubs have significantly dropped their player budgets, and some players have moved on and others have come in.
“It should make for some very interesting games and results across the league,” he concluded.
Booth’s side has been boosted by the addition of highly decorated goalkeeper Michael Weier and returned sharp shooter Stuart Edgar to his squad, while goalkeeper Kurtis Goodwin has been released after moving further down the coast.
Saturday’s clash with Olympic will be the first competitive meeting between the clubs since 2012, when they both contested the Brisbane Premier League.