North Queensland Fury will eventually take on a more youthful look after admitting older players seem to struggle with the Townsville heat.
Inaugural coach Ian Ferguson has revealed the club will actively chase younger players in order to assemble a squad that can cope better with the harsh North Queensland conditions.
“It’s our first year up and running and we have realised that the older players are probably going to struggle up here a little bit,” Ferguson said.
“So my strategy (is) I definitely want to get that age gap down.”
“It was good for the first year where the (older) boys could get us through the first season and get us that stability but now we’re looking a little bit more towards younger personnel.”
North Queensland-s first season in the Hyundai A-League has been riddled with injuries, many to the older players.
The club has nine members older than 30 years of age on its list.
Of those, Scott Wilson, Shane Stefanutto and James Robinson have suffered season-ending knee injuries, Ufuk Talay has played just seven games due to calf problems, Robbie Middleby has missed several games through injury, Paul Henderson and Paul Kohler have been in and out of the team on form and Robbie Fowler’s fitness has to be constantly managed.
The squad was feeling the pinch after last week’s grueling three-game schedule.
Ferguson admitted several players were on light duties at training in a bid to get over the soreness in time for their Round 21 clash with the Melbourne Victory at Dairy Farmers Stadium.
“We’ve got probably about seven that are going to have to pull up after the warm up so we’ve still got a few problems but hopefully plenty of time to get them ready and get them on the park,” Ferguson said.
The notoriously fiery Scotsman says he won’t be a Christmas scrooge, allowing his players some festive freedom.
“I won’t make too much a deal of it,” Ferguson said.
“They are professionals and they do know what’s at stake.”
“We’ve got a massive game against Melbourne on the 27th (of December), they can have a couple of drinks but as long as it’s within reason.”
