Orange Emus' Blowes Clothing Cup grand final loss to Bathurst Bulldogs hurt, and a sense of unfinished business will drive Orange Emus coach Pete Bromley in season 2020 after being reappointed to the club's top job last week.
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After playing a lone hand as mentor in Emus' run to the 2019 decider Bromley will be joined by co-coach Jeremy Wallace next year, who returns to the fold after stepping down following the greens' title win the year before.
"There's definitely a sense of unfinished business, losing grand finals isn't fun and we definitely want to go one better next year," Bromley said.
"It's good to have Jez (Wallace) back on board. He's also going to look after our strength and conditioning but it's as much to help me avoid juggling both our forwards and our backline at the same time.
There's definitely a sense of unfinished business, losing grand finals isn't fun.
- Emus coach Pete Bromley
"He's a familiar face among the group and has had a lot of success in the past as a coach, he knows the culture we have, the players we've got and what we're trying to do, so that makes it a lot easier than bringing in a new face."
Bromley went on to say there's more in terms of unfinished business than just the top grade title though, he's desperate to see the club realise it's potential in a holistic sense, and shed the hoodoo it's had through it's recent dominance.
Both Emus' first and second grade sides have fronted in all of the last six grand finals but they've never hoisted both trophies in the same year. While the greens' top graders have tasted success in 2015, 2016 and 2018, the reserve grade outfit won in 2014, 2017 and last season.
"As a coach I actually lost that [2018] second grade grand final to Bulldogs as well, so there's unfinished business personally for me in that respect too but also for the club," Bromley said.
"It's great we were able to win that second grade premiership this season and also that we had all our senior sides, except colts, in grand finals including the women. We want try and do that again in 2020, but we'd also love to win more than just one."
Premiership-winning second grade mentor Greg Hedley returns to his role in 2020 and he'll be assisted by title-winning stars Matt Campbell and Al Hattersley, who make the shift into the coaching realm.
"It's great to see Greg return and I'm excited to work with him again, I'm really pleased to see the likes of Campbo and Hattsy come on board too. It's really encouraging to have players wanting to do that, to lead and coach," Bromley said.
"Again, they know the playing group and they've had a lot of success during their time at Emus and it really just adds to our depth across the board."
Bromley said he'll be focused on refining a handful of things throughout his second pre-season in charge, one big change he'll make is to add another session each week to alleviate availability issues.
"With shift workers and guys not able to make it every Tuesday and Thursday we're going to look to add a Saturday morning session in as well, just to make sure everyone's getting the same amount of work in and we're as fit and strong as we can be," Bromley said.
"I don't think that was too big an issue in the season just gone, we certainly weren't too far away anyway. Otherwise it'll be about refining skills and hopefully it'll give us a leg-up in terms of identifying squads a bit earlier before the season starts.
"Another big thing is a trial. We didn't have any trials before the 2019 season and that's something we'll try and change, even if it's just one."
Chris Bailey returns to coach Emus' third grade side once again, assuming Central West Rugby Union doesn't restructure, while the greens' Westfund Ferguson Cup coaching staff is yet to be announced.
In another addition for 2020, three-time title winning mentor Paul Ringland comes back into the fold officially as well, assuming the role of coaching director.
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