Lincoln Stewart's programs from the opening few rounds of the Central North competition are full of scribbles and notes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As the Kookaburras women's co-coach, and with the NSW Country Championships just over a month away, he has been diligently casting an eye over the games he has been at, and noting players to reach out to about being involved.
"I sit there and jot down things on the programs," Stewart said.
Taking the reigns again with Matt Hannay, they have really liked what they've seen so far.
They have lost a few key players from last year's campaign. Georgia Moore has moved to Sydney and Emmy Barr Brisbane, while captain Toni Gale has done her ACL.
On the flip side, there have been a few new faces on the scene and players stepping up.
"From what we've seen in the first few games, it's looking promising," Stewart said.
Not that far off a spot in the final last year, he and Hannay were keen to see where they could take the group.
"Although we probably didn't have the success we wanted at the country champs last year, it was promising to see three girls get through to Country and hopefully we can emulate that again, if not better it," he said.
The 2024 program for the women, will this year also include the 7s state championships.
The date for those hasn't been announced yet but Stewart expects them to be sometime after the season.
"They revamped it last year but we didn't find out about it until it was too late," he said.
"I got a lot of messages from the girls saying are we doing it?, can we do it?."
It got to the point, he said, where they considered just throwing together a team and funding it themselves (representative teams are usually funded by the zone).
"It didn't end up happening but I went in this year and said 'we want to do both'. There is the want for it with the girls," Stewart said.
But that is for another day.
First order of business is the country champs, which will be held in Tamworth on June 9 and 10.
Preparations officially kick-off this Sunday with an open training session at Gunnedah.
So far through their involvement with Gunnedah, Stewart and Hannay have seen Pirates, Narrabri and Moree and, obviously the Red Devils, play and have reached out to players that way.
"We've also been talking a bit with other coaches and also other people around the zone and past players from the teams that we haven't seen as to who they think would want to be involved, who is looking good in their team and things like that," Stewart said.
Ideally, they would like to get a spread of players from every club.
"The first week is always an interesting one, to see who sort of comes off their own back," he said.
"We try and let them come off their own back initially and then persuade a few people if we have to."
They have another open training session scheduled for Sunday May 19, and a full squad training on June 2.
Stewart and Hannay are also working on trying to line up a trial game.
The men also have an open training on Sunday.
For both it is a 10am start.
