GNFL round 2 preview: Brigades host Schofields and new-look Valley, Railways chase win against Rovers

There is no love lost for the Schofield brothers as they make their debut for the new-look Chapman Valley, taking on their old club Brigades in both team’s opening match for season 2024.

The Hawks will play the Royals at home this Saturday in round two of the Great Northern Football League.

One of the biggest storylines this off-season was the announcement of Jayden and Kim Schofield leaving Brigades, with Jayden becoming the new player-coach of Chapman Valley.

The pair bring a new culture to a Royals side that has a premiership drought of more than 30 years.

In his first game as a player-coach, Jayden said he felt good about the side that will run out on the weekend.

“As confident as I can be, training’s been good; the standards have lifted from last year I’ve been told, we won’t really know until Saturday,” he said.

While Jayden will approach it like any other game, he is aware they will be walking into hostile territory at GBSC Sports Park.

“Just another game for me … some of the stuff I have heard come out of their mouth is not on,” he said.

Despite knowing the style of football that Brigades like to run, Jayden is focused on having the Valley play their way, but will try use knowledge of their old club to their advantage.

“We’ll just be playing our brand of footy,” he said.

“We spent three years there, so I know strengths and weaknesses of certain players, so I’ll definitely be telling the boys some of that.

“But I have no doubt they’ll be telling (their players) the strengths and weaknesses about me and Kimmy as well.”

Since taking over as the coach for the Royals, Jayden said they had received full support from the club and the players have responded well.

Seeing strong numbers at training has given the new coach confidence to run out on game day and is focused on having the side improve over last year — and he is hoping for immediate results.

“I’m loving it, absolutely loving (coaching), great decision so far. We haven’t played a game yet, so kind of hard to know,” he said.

“We just want to play our way. I’ve told the boys win, lose or draw, we just want to see improvement.

“It might not all gel on Saturday, but we just want to play our way which will be fast, competitive football. Just looking forward to Saturday.”

In the other game in the split round two fixture, newly promoted player-coach Chris Scott will run out with his Rovers side for the first time this season against Railways on Saturday at the Red Dust Holdings Recreation Ground.

Rovers are debuting a new team after Ian Comben stepped down as coach in place of Scott and have finals aspirations.

The Blues are coming off a nine-point loss to Northampton in the grand final rematch last weekend and will be chasing their first win as they host the Demons.