South Wales Scorpions head coach Dave Clark has thanked everyone at the club for what has been a testing year.
The Scorpions finished ninth in Championship 1 in 2012 and while they failed to win their final game at Barrow Raiders last Sunday, Clark said that there is promise for the future.
The Cardiff-born coach has confirmed that he is staying at the club for 2013 and has already starting building the side for the new season.
“I’d like to thank everyone involved for what’s been a difficult year,” Clark said. “Especially the fans. We had a few come up to Barrow to support us which was a fabulous effort.
“I’d also like to thank the players of course, along with the coaching and backroom staff. There’s been a lot of commitment shown and we know where to build for 2013.”
Clark’s side fell 34-22 on Sunday to Barrow Raiders, who were just a point away from taking the Championship 1 title.
“I think we put in a fantastic performance,” said Clark. “Barrow are near the top and we’re near the bottom. People were predicting we’d lose by 40 points last weekend so I really can’t complain.
“Our players were really proud with the performance they put in. This Barrow side was a team that was still in contention of winning the league title before kick-off and I thought we were sensational against them at times.
“We had a lot of pressure put on our line and defensively we were really good. I couldn’t have asked for a better effort and it shows that we are building nicely for next year.”
Clark says that the club is far more organised than this time last year and has already started signing players for 2013.
“We had a poor year in 2012 because we didn’t start it well,” he said. “We know where we went wrong and we know where to improve. We’ve got structures in place already. I’m staying on as coach when last year I only started in December and it was like building a new side again.
“Now we’re starting to get the players signed up and we’ll make announcements soon when a few are finalised. This time last year the club hadn’t even started negotiating and by December we only had six or seven properly signed on. We should have that number and maybe more by the end of this week.”
Some of those players are certain to come from the ever improving under 18 side who beat Super League outfit Castleford Tigers on Saturday.
“We’ve got some great kids coming through,” Clark said. “Courtney Davies was named by some pundits as our man of the match in Barrow on Sunday which is great for him. It was his first ever start for us on Sunday and he showed how well he could cope with life in Championship 1. He’ll get better and better. Osian Phillips, our other under 18 lad in the side on Sunday, also did really well. He came off the bench and put some real commitment in.
“There are more coming through too and some of them will join the senior squad for 2013. We know that we need to work hard this winter and hopefully next year we’ll have a much better season.”
All the best for next year from NZ.