GNFL season 2022 preview: Towns and Rovers set to face off in season opener

Towns will be looking for an improved display in 2022 after finishing second bottom on the ladder last season, with three wins and 11 losses on the board. Ahead of its GNFL season-opening clash with the Rovers on Friday night, Towns’ league coach, Dale Baynes said ”we’ve got a few returning players that have come back to the footy club plus a few new faces as well. So there’s about eight new blokes that we’ve added to the squad from last year.” Among the returning players is Tom Collins, who played for Rovers last year and will go straight into the midfield. “He was probably not far off fairest and best the year before he left and he had a few injuries and things like that. So having him back in the midfield will be fantastic,” Baynes said. They have added Padyn Masons from the Brigades, Brett Byron will make the journey from Carnarvon each week, while Stuart Egan and Andrew Hodder have also returned. He said these recruits would add much needed experience to the side, helping the younger players to develop. “The beauty of these blokes is they’re a bit older. We needed some older, more mature bodies to go into, look after the kids a bit and complement them, which is fantastic, because our colts won the premiership last year.” “So to have those guys, their confidence of winning a premiership and then add some mature bodies around them will hopefully make us a bit more competitive this year,” he said. While there is reason to be optimistic, Baynes said he was tempering his expectations for a finals spot. “Yeah, still low because we we are so young and immature as a football team. But we just want to be more competitive than last year and not get blown off the park as much as we did in some games,” he said.