Waitakere’s premier men’s team have a very simple goal this season and that is to win promotion. Their player coach Dusan Hakaraia believes his side have all the ability to make the step up and be competitive at the next level.

Hakaraia says numbers have been good at pre-season training and the team’s core focus has been getting solid numbers under their belts.

“Our main focus has simply been volume, hitting as many balls as possible and bowling as many overs as possible. We have tried to be balanced in how we do that so that we don’t overwork our bowlers. Slowly increasing their loads each week. We don’t want guys going from bowling nothing to bowling as many balls as possible.”

He says his side has placed a big onus on turning up to pre-season fit and ready to go.

“We put fitness down to the individual, we want the guys to take some responsibility for looking after themselves before they turn up. We want to be more professional, if we want to be professional we need to look after ourselves. Everyone is accountable for their own performance and shouldn’t be blaming it on anyone else.”

Hakaraia says all his players have been very clear about what they want to get out of the season.

“We feel we’ve got the team that can get promoted this year. If we play to our potential I think we can do it easy, from what I am seeing and what I have seen from the competition in the past. There are some developing sides out there like us.”

“Getting promoted is a serious goal. I think we are good enough to get up there. We started coming good at the end of last year and going into the last week we almost had the chance to get the boost then and that is with not having the best season. Now with a year’s extra worth of experience I think it is ; within our reach.”

With strong team goals the coach says he has kept his own goals simple for the season.

“I’m just an old man now, my personal goal is just to help the team out as much as possible. Personally I think I underperformed last year so if I am at my best I think I can help the team.”

As final preparation for the season Hakaraia says his team have a couple of matches lined up.

“We are playing Eden Roskill next week, we had planned to play Pukekohe this week but we can’t get a ground, it is a bit tricky at this stage to get one. It is good to play Eden Roskill though so the guys can get out and play on grass. Everyone is training indoors so the change is good. It can be hard to measure form though as it is very early on.”

Hakaraia is overall very happy with where his squad is at.

“I am looking forward to seeing how the young boys go, the likes of Jared Challis and Ben Lister who have been doing Auckland training. It will be good to see them step up and be contributors to the team. It will be good to see the young fellas stand up and become senior players in the team. We have some good players coming through in the Waitakere from school level.”

- From the ACA website 25th September 2015