CROCS coach Brad Cooper has provided a frank admission declaring his playing group didn’t demonstrate the hunger needed to get the job done in last year’s AFL Cairns finals series.

In somewhat of a shock the Aaron Davey inspired Cairns City Lions toppled the September specialists 109-76 in the preliminary final on the way to claiming their first premiership in many, many years.

“If I was going to pinpoint any one thing as to why they (Lions) beat us in the prelim (final) and why I think they won the grand final – it was purely (based) on hunger,” the master coach admitted to Newsport.

“That’s just my opinion from the outside looking in. In the prelim I thought their players were a lot hungrier than ours.

“Maybe ours (playing group) had climbed the mountain a few times. I certainly saw them (Lions) as a side that was hellbent on achieving the ultimate success.

“Finals footy is about turning up on the day and giving what you can; I thought they gave a lot more as a group than ours.”

As usual the Crocs won’t know the makeup of this year’s list until much closer to round one.

“We’ve probably lost around 10 players from last year’s preliminary final side, which is run of the mill for us (being a transient town),” Cooper said.

“We’ve got some recruits that have since arrived, while some players have re-joined us after going home then coming back to Port, because they miss the town or lifestyle here.”

For the moment though ahead of another gruelling campaign the champion coach has a range of club duties to fulfil before the opening bounce in the coming months.

“I don’t look too far ahead, I never really have, there’s work to be done (around the club at the moment) so it’s head down (and) um up,” he said.
“We’ve been training twice a week, but that side of things is actually the minimal side of my week.

“At the moment I’m busy with the ongoing recruitment of players, finding them jobs and liaising with committee and club sponsors.”

Meanwhile, Auskick gets underway tomorrow, February 25, at Port Douglas sporting complex from 5pm.