Cowra Eagles have made a massive move ahead of the upcoming 2018 Blowes Clothing Cup competition, appointing former NSW Country coach Col Jeffs as its mentor.
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Jeffs has also worked with Fijian and Canadian national sides, as well as Central West in recent years, and takes the reins for a third stint at the helm of the Eagles following tenures during the late 80s and early 90s.
He’ll be supported by 2017 coach Troy Hayes, Justin Bryant and Peter Holmes will look after second grade and Michelle Miller remains coach of the women’s side with Aaron Crowe.
Jeffs put his hand up in an effort to help develop the club’s coaches and encourage more coaches while also realising the club will need to be at its best in 2018, due to the competition’s restructure and the Eagles securing a tier one spot.
“My goal is to try and encourage more blokes to want to coach in Cowra in all grades,” Jeffs said.
“We’ve had issues in the past trying to get guys to coach second grade and to coach colts.
“I thought I can do what I did with central west two years ago when I went in and took over the coaching group and developed them.
“Now they’ve stepped up and taken over in a short period of time.”
Having his players prepared from the opening round is also something Jeffs is homing in on, having acknowledged Cowra has a tendency to start slowly before leaving its run too late.
He believes he can take Cowra to a top two finish in tier one in 2018, with a goal set to make the grand final in 2019.
“A big thing for us is making sure we’re prepared from the first game. In the past we’ve started slow, I want to change that,” Jeffs said.
“It’s going to be tough but if we’re mentally prepared I can’t see why we can’t finish in the top four, but my goal would be top two and second grade the top four.
“I’ve been fortunate I’ve always had reasonable results and I think they [the Eagles] have been good enough the last few years but have just fallen short.
“Forbes had a three year program. We had a good year this year, hopefully next year as well, so within two years I think we could contest a grand final,” he said.
Preparations for the new season will begin next Thursday, December 7 when the Eagles holds its first training run at River Park.
In the lead up to Christmas and the first few weeks of January, training will be relaxed. “We’ll discuss the program and how we want to attack next season,” Jeffs said.
