The club’s committee, over the off season, did some soul searching and undertook a thorough review of the last few Shoalhaven Football Association seasons.

The Basin’s coaching panel is striving to make the club more competitive and consistent in 2019.

There have been many positives achieved over the last few years, but to be successful, the Dragons need to continuously evolve.

The club has appointed coaches for two of its senior grades and has a strong candidate in mind for the third-grade job.

This season Craig Holden will be stepping up and will have a much bigger role with the first-grade squad.

Holden’s tactical awareness and astute football knowledge will be greatly appreciated by the first-grade squad.

Martin Warner will again coach second grade again this year, having experienced his first season in the Shoalhaven last year and will be much better prepared for the competition after 2018, while Chris Brown looks like he will coach third grade.

Peter Watts, an experienced and passionate goalkeeping coach, has been with the Basin now for a few seasons and his role is always expanding.

Watts, at one stage last season, was coaching nearly all the Basin’s goalkeepers four nights a week, which was a massive undertaking and much appreciated by all.

Keith Graham joined the club last season as a fitness coach and many people know him from his role at Workout South Nowra Gym.

Graham, apart from the fitness side of things, was also instrumental in helping rehabilitate injured players.

The final and most crucial part of Basin becoming more successful is the player group.

Basin showed in first grade that it had an outstanding mixture of skilful young players, mixed in with older more experienced guys and that it could match it with any opposition team in the association.

However, the club lacks the player depth and the competition for starting spots that would make it a more consistent threat on a week-to-week basis.

After the last few seasons, the committee noted with frustration regarding the number of quality Basin juniors that left the club years ago and are currently playing with other teams.

There are also a handful of high-quality Basin junior players currently playing for various Wollongong based teams.

Any of these players would be welcomed back, along with any young players who are committed to improving their skills and have a serious desire to want to play first-grade and be a part of a club committed to improvement.

Getting these juniors back would be a major step to improving the Basin’s first and second-grade teams this season.

So dust off the footy boots as the Basin is planning to have our first player get together on Wednesday, January 16  at the Basin Football fields starting at 5.30pm.

All players from last season are welcome to come along and any new players or players who have not pulled on the boots for the last few years are most welcome to attend.

Please let your fellow players know about Wednesday, January 16 and dredge out anyone who watches the Basin’s matches and said they would like to have a kick.

Best contact at the moment for more information is senior coaching coordinator Paul Cubbo on 0403 200 496, any committee member or via the club’s Facebook page.

So 2019 is the Year of the Dragon – we would love to have you be a part of it.