New Highland skipper - ‘No promotion talk – but we won’t accept losing’
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THE famous Spider-Man quote talked about great responsibility coming with great power.
Highland’s new captain Andrew Findlater understands that wholly and will not take any relinquishing of last season’s impeccably-high standards.
After more than a decade out of the National League system, Highland make their return in three weeks time and it would be easy, given their unbeaten 2015-16 campaign and trip to Murrayfield in the National Shield, for players to think success this season would be a given.
For Findlater, last season’s Caledonia One player of the year and Highland skipper following Kevin Brown’s passing of the torch, he wants to put his own stamp on things at Canal Park.
In an impressively confident and articulate interview, he speaks of it being the time for the "20-somethings" that have come through the ranks with the club to take the reins and lead the club forward. If that results in promotion at the first time of asking, so be it.
"The guys coming towards the end of their careers will be taking more of a back seat," he says. "We’ll still lean on them for advice but there is something for us guys, in our mid-20s, to strive for. It’s up to us to steer the club in the right direction.
"Some guys go away for university and when they come back at 22 or 23, they’re just looking to get back involved with rugby again. The ones that stay will play with the same guys for years; it’s up to us to keep them motivated."
Findlater, whose brother Craig has been a regular in Dave Carson’s backs arsenal, will not face captaincy duties alone. His trusted left and right-hand men will be Stuart MacDonald and Rory Cross; the trio have been flatmates for three years and will share the inevitable off-field responsibilities that come with assuming a leadership role in sport.
A younger side has meant more faces to bed in ahead of their voyage back to the big time but rather than speaking with trepidation, there is a distinct mood of assertive confidence ahead of the new campaign.
The acid test will be if bodies are willing to travel to Orkney on the ferry in December or down to Dumfries, insists Findlater, but much like their previous season, the P word will be banned.
"We won’t discuss promotion, but I know what I want," adds Findlater. "I won’t be talking about it but I won’t be letting boys think it’s OK to lose games.
"We can’t take two or three games to beat teams and say ‘we’ll try again next season’. We’ve got to have a gameplan in place where we can impose ourselves – it’s about playing smarter.
"I don’t want guys to sit back just because of the numbers we’ve got (at training). There’s no margin for error. If it’s going to happen, I want it to happen now."
Head coach Dave Carson spoke earlier in the week about preparing the team mentally for the step up in standard. Gone are the games that, with the greatest respect, Highland probably had won before setting foot on the pitch.
In all likelihood, they will not be putting 80 or 90 points on the board this season, not on a regular basis anyway. Carson has spoke about "grinding out" games and staying patient, even if the scoreboard is not frantically ticking over by half-time.
Findlater accepts that his incumbent, Kevin Brown, had a difficult job last season to keep players focused, as they new the gulf in quality meant they would only be level with their opposition at kick-off.
"In some ways, coming up makes my job easier," says flanker Findlater. "Coming into the league as underdogs, it’s 10 times easier to get motivated. Everyone wants to prove themselves against quality opposition. We knew last season that we were going to win the majority of games and were good for going up."
This week Highland face Edinburgh Accies, who Findlater played for at university but missed two years due to a cruciate ligament injury. National One opposition will set the barometer for just how far they can go this season.
"With new guys coming in we could be pushing for this league," he adds. "We’ve got to target first or second. That’s what every other team will do, won’t they?"
