THEY may be adamant that junior development is the way to turn the club back into a North East Australian Football League stronghold, but Queanbeyan Tigers' co-coach Kade Klemke has revealed they will recruit as well as they can too.
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It has been reported in local media recently the club will throw its resources into better junior development over the next couple of years to compensate for the lack of senior players currently available.
But Klemke told The Queanbeyan Age this week recruiting was also a must to assist in what he said could be "a couple of years" of process.
"I think recruiting-wise there will be a few holes we have to fill. If we want to be competitive, we can try and keep playing these young guys, but they need help as well. We probably need some more leadership at the moment," he said.
Klemke said the Tigers senior coaching group, which includes NEAFL co-coach Josh Bryce and AFL Canberra first grade coach Paul Campbell, had not yet decided what positions of the field they would look to bring players in to, but said that meeting was coming soon.
"We need to look at some key areas to recruit in, and they might be holes we can develop our young guys to fill," he said.
"But we've got to be competitive next year. I always try to ring guys that have left the club as well and we love to try and get them back to the club."
Along with Bryce, Klemke has played in the Victorian Football League- arguably the strongest second tier competition in the country- and said he planned to use this experience to develop the Tigers.
"It's about young guys developing, but at the same time, you've got to have key players as well," he said.
"It's too early to say we're falling apart. I want to give it a couple years. We've got some good young talent coming through. It's all going to take time."
Klemke's team is sitting second last on the ladder with just two wins, but should they call mostly upon their youth, they may be in good hands.
The AFL Canberra side is sitting one game clear on top of their ladder and just one win away from securing a finals spot.
Their coach Campbell said he had been more strict with their standard this season due to what he said was "a big difference in skill level" between the Canberra competition and the NEAFL.
"That's why we've got to improve this group so the NEAFL side can improve again," he said.
"Brandon Lagana, our under 18s captain and state player will now play NEAFL for the rest of the year, and we had Jack O'Halloran play his first NEAFL game last weekend too."
"There's other kids too who will get their crack in the next couple of weeks."