Manning’s coach embracing change

Manning’s School head coach Patrick Graham is embracing the challenge of rebuilding as his team prepares for the upcoming Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) football season after losing eight players from last year’s squad.

With several new faces expected to feature in the starting line-up, Graham said conditioning is progressing well with the competition set to begin in two to three weeks.

“Well, we always try to give it our best. We have a fairly new team, fairly new in the sense that we lost roughly about eight players for various reasons. It is a new bunch going in, so we will give it our best,” said Graham.

Having lost eight players from last season’s squad, Graham has set a realistic target of reaching the quarterfinals as the team begins its rebuilding process.

“Once we take part in a competition, we always encourage our youngsters to give it their best. We always take part in competition with the intention of winning it. The realistic goal this time around is roughly quarterfinals, considering that we would have lost some players and considering the new format,” Graham said about the expectations.

In the upcoming season, teams have been seeded in both the daCosta Cup and Manning Cup. The unseeded teams will contest the first round, with the top teams advancing to the second round, where the seeded teams will enter the competition.

All teams in the rural area daCosta Cup and Corporate Area Manning Cup will also compete in the Ben Francis Knockout and Walker Cup Knockout competitions.

In recent years, only the eight losing teams in the round of 16 were eligible to challenge for the knockout shield, prompting both competitions to be referred to as the “Losers’ Cup”.

The transition to a new format presents both challenges and opportunities. While changes often bring initial hiccups, Graham said the new structure allows coaches to plan more effectively.

“Whenever there is change, it always encounters hiccups. Changes are inevitable, so the new format, we will just have to give it a chance and see how things turn out in the end. What this does is that it gives you that opportunity to plan your periodisation more than anything else, so it is how you use your sessions really,” Graham told The Gleaner.

He also noted that the revised format is expected to make the competition highly competitive from day one, requiring teams to perform at a high level from the outset.

Last season, Manning’s qualified for the Ben Francis Knockout after being eliminated in the daCosta Cup round of 16 but were later beaten by defending champions Clarendon College on penalties in the semi-finals.

Graham is also cautiously optimistic about the team’s preparations.

“We are not 100 per cent there. We have another few weeks for the competition, so as it relates to our conditioning, we are where we want to be,” said Graham.

Graham said the focus at this stage is on teaching his players to love the game and maintain concentration for extended periods.

“Once they get that opportunity to play football, they will be highly motivated. The game itself is a motivator. The issue really is to get them really focused on the game itself so they will be ready once it is a competition.

“It is just now to get them focused on the task at hand because these are youngsters, they can get easily carried away,” added Graham.