By Trevor Jackson
JOSH Woodall returns to Port MacDonnell and hopes to improve on last season’s unceremonious exit from the Mid South East football finals series.
The Demons went down to Kalangadoo and Hatherleigh in the finals after claiming the minor premiership.
Woodall has addressed the situation, but does not play to dwell on it, but rather, get on with thejob at hand.
“It hurts, when you know you should be around the mark,” he said.
“The way we went out was not ideal but you live and learn.
“We have addressed it and now we just move forward … you have to stay positive.
“Hopefully we can learn from that and go a step further.”
Woodall said the Demons had enjoyed a strong pre-season, but there are names missing from the roster which will be hard to fill.
Wade Chant has moved to Adelaide and Mark Smith to West Gambier.
Rhys Timms went to Penola and Kev Thomson back to East Gambier.
However, Woodall is confident he can replace those players, with what will be a different type of team game.
“Nathan Botherton will cover Wade’s spot and Jett Attard will add a bit of pace to the side,” he said.
“Nathan Bell from Dartmoor will play on a wing or somewhere, then we have some good young kids coming through.
“We will be a young side, but hopefully will have a bit of pace which will be good.”
Despite the changes, Woodall believes his side will be competitive.
“It is hard to know until it kicks off, but if your bottom eight play pretty well you are around the mark,” he said.
“We just want to use our pace, our young fellows and we have a good mid-field.
“We have a couple of the best ruckmen in the league so if we can use those boys well, we should be around the mark.”
Woodall also noted the importance of the younger players in the club, who he said got the side through pre-season training and he relishes the opening-round clash with Kalangadoo.
“They look exciting … we have about five or six Under 17s who could play A Grade,” he said.
“Then we have a few younger players ready in a year or two who should be good footballers.
“We are pretty keen for Round 1 … it will be a big day playing Kalangadoo.”
