With North Queensland Fury’s finals hopes all but gone they now shift their attention to using their remaining games to prepare for next season if they have one.
North Queensland would have to win all of their remaining matches to be a chance of making the finals which is highly unlikely considering they have only won four games all season and are currently sitting on the bottom of the ladder.
Assistant Coach Stuart McLaren said their shift in approach would see a number of changes made to their 15-man squad that will take on the Newcastle Jets Saturday night.
“It’s going to be a future first approach from us. There will be couple of changes in there. It’s not a case of making wholesale changes and anybody who has not featured much will be automatically get a game but there will be a couple of boys in there who will be given some opportunities,” he said.
With the club’s future still uncertain, the team could be preparing for a season that may not even happen but McLaren remains hopeful.
“It’s just a case of us looking toward next season. We hope that there will be one. We’re planning for one so there will be a couple of changes in the squad.”
Goalkeeper Sebastian Usai is a definite to get his chance to take the field against the Jets but McLaren would not give too many hints as to who will make up the squad.
“Some of the names that we can throw about are the Hingerts (Jack Hingert), the Studmans (Brett Studman) and these sorts of players,” he said.
McLaren went on the say that the rotation of players would be useful in determining the possible makeup of the team next season.
“You get away from the team focus and start to look at some individual aspects. Some of the players who maybe haven’t played as much football or the jury is still out on whether we retain them or not will get their opportunity over the next seven or eight games,” he said.
The rotation will be a gradual process that will occur for the remainder of the season, especially over the next week with the Fury playing three games in seven days.
“It’s not wholesale changes to bring them all in straight away for one game. We do obviously have a tough road trip in this next week where we will play the three games in six or seven days so the squad will slowly rotate through that,” McLaren said.
