AS the Victorian Netball League (VNL) gets back and up running after a year off, 2019 runners up Casey Demons are easing themselves back into elite level sport.

“So our focus for the season, in preseason when we got them all there, was just for them to get to know each other, you know, do different screens, get their footwork and the ball handling right, getting them to pass it to each other, bit of skill sets as well, remember this remember that,” head coach Robynn Pym said.

At the VNL’s recommendation, the Demons Championship squad has been slowly getting back into routine after COVID-19, focusing on building strength and conditioning first. Pym talks highly of the club’s new conditioning coach, 21-year old Jack Doyle, and praises him for getting the team’s fitness back to what it was – or perhaps even better than what it was – before COVID-19 hit last year.

“He has made a good impact. We are all in the green, every player, they have made definite improvements over the last three weeks. So fitness, I think we are better than we have ever been as an overall club,” Pym said.

“Girls just won’t go, send them a program see how they go, they need engagement… I shouldn’t be gender-stereotyping there either, I believe men need to have a connection also to know what value they are getting out of the conditioning coach.”

While player health and wellbeing is highly important, Pym is also very conscious of the people behind the players, particularly the coaches across all the Demon’s squads.

“As a coaching group, we are finding our feet back in coaching too. You know, we talk all about the athletes wellbeing and how they manage COVID, and not many people have actually talked about the coaches wellbeing and that has been important to me as well with our group.”

The Demons championship squad are lucky enough to have some players who bring with them elite competition experience, such as Emma Ryde, Sacha McDonald, Tayla Honey and Sharni Lambden.

“When they come back to VNL, the purpose and the focus for us is definitely to bring their experience back into the side, but not in a telling role, but learning to really bring their experience of being in a team culture, and setting the standard of the quality that they train at,” Pym said.

“Moving forward, they are bringing that training of intensity to lift the club. It’s great for the young ones to go, ‘oooh, I’ve seen her on the TV’ or ‘I’ve seen her’, which is great, so that brings another sense of pride and the brand of netball that they aspire to.”

The team also have some up and comers to keep an eye out for, such as Tahlia Coates. Making her way up through the Casey Demons pathways, Coates missed out on captaining the Victorian 19 and Under side last season, but Pym believes she is ready to be playing with the Championship side this year.

“She just got 18.6 on the yo-yo [aerobic endurance fitness test]. Now, Tegan Philip and those Vixens goal attacks [are] generally around 17.5. Great tank in her, she’s got a great tank. Now we know she’s got the tank, it’s now performing the skill, and that’s what Championship is about.”

Overall, Pym is confident the Championship team will be able to make it to finals, and hopefully better what they were able to achieve in 2019.

“We train to win a grand final, but at the same time, we are also forming a brand new side. We did that in 2019 and we really worked at it,” she said.

“We know that we have a team in Championship that will be competitive, we have just got to be able to apply it and put it out there on court too.”