By: Riley Pollock – 05.11.24
Hear what the Roughnecks were saying following the first weekend of training camp:
Josh Sanderson on the intensity level from Sunday’s scrimmage:
“It was good, guys are competing hard for spots and that’s what we want. They are trying to earn their roles, earn their minutes. I thought all three sessions were good, it’s only going to get tougher. Next we’ve got Toronto and Philadelphia, both exhibition games, so each weekend is going to step up a bit but we’re really happy with this one.”
On building towards second weekend of camp:
“We’re going to have to get rid of a couple guys and trim down a little bit and keep building chemistry and keep building our game, get our systems locked in a little bit more next weekend. We wanted the guys to just think and work this weekend and show their skill set and I thought they did that. We’re just looking to get better every session and we did that this weekend.”
Dane Dobbie on his first weekend back with the Roughnecks:
“It was fun. We got going right away, there were a lot of people out here and it was competitive. Flying in, it felt like home a little bit so it was fun.”
On working with Sanderson again and group chemistry:
“Me and Josh go back a ways so I understand him and the guys here are great. They know what’s going on, they played all last year. We’re familiarizing ourselves with each other and we’re looking forward to next weekend.
Jesse King on having chemistry with Mathieu Gautier from summer ball:
“Gaut’s a great kid. I had a really great summer with him (in Victoria), was excited to watch him grow a little bit and when I found out he was going to be playing with us it was pretty cool to see. I know he’s really excited being from just up north in Edmonton. He’s a scrappy kid, he gets in the areas that nobody wants to go and he takes hits and he gets to the front of the net which you always look for in guys. That’s something you can’t really teach.”
On Dobbie and Curtis Dickson rejoining the offence:
“It will be just a little bit of a growing period at the start to see how we all developed. When I was here with Dobbie I was basically the guy that came around and I would do a lot of the pick setting for him and he was a big ball carrier. Over the last few years my game has obviously developed a little bit differently.
“Getting to have guys on our side of the floor that are really great carrying the ball and obviously Tanner (Cook) has come a long way, too, when it comes to being a ball carrier, I think it should mesh really well because at any moment you have someone with the ball in their stick that is going to be a threat. Dickson is obviously a guy that does a lot on the ball and off the ball and when he has the ball in his stick something can always happen.”
