Hunter Rugby - Maitland captain Sam Callow - video Dailymotion

Maitland captain Sam Callow on premiership defence

Transcript

00:00 We're here with Sam Callow from Maitland Rugby Club. Sam, last year was such a big year,

00:03 first premiership in 25 odd years for Maitland. How do you guys better that or match that?

00:08 Well, it's just building on what we've already experienced. It's been a while since we've been

00:12 in a grand final and coming away with a success. It's just wanting to be better and there's always

00:19 something to improve on. Is there an area that the coaching staff have identified where you

00:24 can make that next step? Yeah, we've just noticed that we always had a lot of attacking opportunities,

00:31 especially in the year 22 and just last pass kind of stuff and we're just trying to fix that up now

00:36 so it's a build on for this year. You've got the majority of the squad is back. Is there anyone new

00:40 that's come to the club or a junior that's coming through that you're expecting big things from?

00:43 There's a few young 18 year olds coming up that are quite keen and eager. A winger, Tommy Lovegrove,

00:51 and he's looking very promising. He's first game in first grade in the trial game this weekend,

00:56 so we'll see how he goes. How are you guys going from being the hunters to the hunted? Mate,

01:00 who's the team to beat outside of yourselves? I think this year it's going to be Wanderers

01:05 will be tough to beat on their 100 year anniversary. And knocking over them last

01:10 year in the semi-final by one point, I think they're out to get us by a long way. And yeah,

01:15 we knocked them over four times last year, so I think they're pretty upset about it.

01:19 And on a personal front, mate, what battle do you most look forward to, whether it's a tough one or

01:23 a mateship one or all the above? I always love playing Marcus Christensen. He's an older,

01:29 experienced player and I love learning from him and yeah, playing against him, tough.

01:34 What does a successful 2024 look like for the Blacks? We're hunting for back to back, so look out.