When Shane Rampling signed on as Boggabri coach to lead the club into first division back in 2018, he said this to this newspaper: "I know it is a big step for us at Boggy. It's a small-community club never run in first division. But we're embracing the challenge and we're looking forward to it."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Embraced the challenge, they did. And the club's aiming to play semi-final football.
They're even dreaming of a home semi-final. If they were able to achieve that, Rampling said it would be massive for the club.
"We've got a lot of hard work to do, it's not easy, every club wants to win and we've just gotta try and better ourselves at training and what we do away from training as well. But we'll get there," he said.
"We're enjoying it, it's a good ride at the moment. There's a good vibe at the place and then you've got 30 odd people on the committee. It's just astonishing the support you get for such a small little club, it's just unbelievable."
Rampling wants to make semi-finals not only for himself and the players, but also for everyone who supports the club.
"It'd be fabulous just to repay the supporters and the committee people," he said.
"They clap us off every game and we've probably got the best away support of any club in the comp as well.
"A lot of supporters go to away games and there'd be nothing better to be super competitive in every game we play and snatch a top four spot.
"If we did get a home semi it'd just be an amazing feeling."
Rampling said the squad was well on its way.
He sees improvement among the playing group - particularly the younger players - and an increase in confidence.
However, Rampling said the Kangaroos need to improve their consistency if they want to play semi-final football.
"The biggest problem we've got is bridging our gap from our best game to our worst game," Rampling said.
"Being a lot more consistent [is key] and there's a lot of variables there - shift work, injuries, unavailability, so if we can bridge our gap between best and worst and we'll find ourselves getting even higher up the table."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News