Well, it's been a long summer, but finally, after all the waiting, we're here on the verge of a new season. A season that looks to hold as much promise for the Bess as the last did. Despite losing Jim to London (and naturally, I wish him the best of luck), Whis seems to have put together another more than competitive team. The core of last year's team have been retained and the new players seem more than adaquate replacements. Admittedly, some of the departing players will be missed, I feel, players like Tommy Gomes and Brian Pellerin, but I don't think that their absence will harm the team's performances overall. There was some anxiety about the quality of some of the new guys, several of whom had ammassed a great deal of PIMs in their previous seasons. However, we were assured by Whis that this was merely because they were asked to play an enforcer role by old coaches, and that they would be able to cut it up front for Bracknell. This seems to have been borne out by the challange match perfomrances against Slough. Admittedly, the Jets are only BNL opposition, and the gap between the ISL and the BNL widens every year, but lets not forget that the Jets held us 3-3 at the Hive in last season's B+H Cup, so it's still some achievement. In those two matches, from 24 goals, 11 were scored by new players, supporting to some extent Whistle's comments.
Another pleasing aspect to Bracknell's squad for the coming season is it's sheer size. Last season, we had 20 players play for us, but of them Wayde Bucsis left before Christmas, whilst Colin Ward and Derek Decosty both joined late. This year, we're starting with 20 players (if we count dave Whistle as a player), and we still apparently have room to expand later in the year should we feel the need. For once I feel confident that Bracknell has the strength in depth to promote a serious challange for honours this season. Yes, honours. Although I certainly have nothing more than hopes to win the league or play-offs, I don't see why either of the cups is out of our reach. After all, we were finalists in a cup last year, and I firmly believe that this year's squad is stronger than last's. Once again, Bracknell are being written off before the season has begun. In a recent web survey carried out by Mike Landers on his Fire on Ice site, Bracknell were voted both least likely to win the league and most likely to finish bottom, whilst they also came bottom in a poll of most popular visiting teams. For a third year in a row, people are predicting that we will be the worst club in the league. In the last two years, we have gobe from strength to strength, partly thanks to opposition players also believing that we are bad, so I certainly am not bothered by our showing in the polls.
Of course, whilst I say that Bracknell have stengthened their line up, it comes as little surprise that the other 7 teams have also strengthened over the summer. Most see the return of the core of their teams last season, with some new mercanaries taken on to bolster their squads. Some questionmarks hang over the season. The biggest unknown of all will be London. We at Bracknell all know full well Jim Fuyarchuk's excellent coaching ability, and more importantly his ability to put together a team from nothing. With no previous benchmark to judge them by, and with many of the players unknown to the British game, only time will tell how good their squad is. Newcastle also pose us some thought. They have gone through tremendous upheaval over the summer, with little of their squad returning, and with a new coach, new name and new ownership. They seem to have picked up a lot of second-rate players but never under estimate Alex Dampier's abilities, despite the bad run of Sheffield last season. A challange could be just what he needs, and that is certainly what bringing success to Newcastle will be - a very big challenge indeed. Finally, can Ayr repeat last year's dominance of the ISL? They have lost the solid back-stopping of Rob Dopson, but his replacement Riendeau should be no mean player himself, whilst most of the Grand Slam winning squad are returning to present an awesome undertaking for the other 7 clubs in the league.
Elsewhere, the BNL clubs seem to be coming closer and closer to agreement every year, and maybe soon we'll have a strong league below the ISL provide a good safety net for teams like the Bison who are no longer able to compete in the ISL, while maybe oneday teams from the BNL may feel able to move in the opposite direction. I think we are several years away from returning to an ideal situation, where teams below ISL are strong enough in both finance and polaying staff, that they are able to compete for promotion on merit alone. The league itself certainly looks excellent this year, with the champions-elect coming from one of at least five or six teams. The B+H this year, by splitting the first round groups to ISL or BNL, gives fans a chance of competitive matches and everyone gets in to the second round. Even if it's unlikely that any BNL teams will beat their ISL opposition to make the third round, at least they gain the experience of playing against the higher opposition, and maybe gain from higher gates too. The one bone of contention I have, and it falls most heavily upon the ISL teams, is the lack of promising British talent coming through the junior systems. We should be striving to replace Canadian imports with British born, bred and trained players, relying only on imports for a touch of the exotic or their own individual merits. It is just rediculous that Bracknell are signing a player who counts as British through his wife's grandmother!
However, let's not allow this one bad point to sour the oppotomism I feel for the coming season. I just hope it's grounded in fact. Good luck!