Gavin Lamb, who won the Kinder Family Perpetual “Diesel of The Year” award in 2023, has committed long-term to the Junee League Tag side.
Gavin Lamb has long term ambitions of coaching the Junee Diesels League Tag side, with the former player turned coach keen to develop a young but talented playing group.
Having taken the job on in 2022, Lamb instantly knew the role was for him, and in 2024, he’ll enter the second of a four year appointment.“I actually put in a four year application,” Lamb said. “I did the first year and asked if they wanted me back, and when I reapplied for the role, I put in for four years, and my thought process at the time was that they needed consistent coaching instead of learning new stuff all over again.”
Lamb is working closely with the under-16s coach and Diesel’s player, Georgia Carroll, with both coaches wanting to help define player pathways in Junee’s league Tag system. “Part of that is to give some consistency to the juniors coming in, so when juniors do step up, it’s a lot easier to teach two, three or four kids instead of everyone, and having the seniors on the same page means it will be easier for anyone new joining the side,” Lamb said.
“I wanted to try and remove some of those barriers, as it can be quite hard for kids in under-16s to step up to seniors, and I had fall support from incumbent under-16s coach Georgia Carroll.
“Georgia has done a great job, and I feel really comfortable that the kids will come through the age group the better for it and ready for seniors.”
With the Junee Diesels hosting their inaugural Mixed Tag competition in 2022, which has continued into 2023, Lamb believes it will put his players in a better place come 2024 and beyond. “It’s great for Junee and the town every way I look at it,” Lamb said.
“It gives the girls a chance to play more and work on those fundamental skills, and it gives the guys and girls a chance to keep fit before the pre season.” When asked about next season and expectations, Lamb wasn’t too focused on wins and losses, but instead, he wanted to secure the club’s future and ensure taggers had a team to play for.
“The team we have coming through next year could look a lot different,” Lamb said. “We risk losing talented players, but we also have talented players coming up in the next three or four years, so we’ll look to be consistent with our behaviours, and if we stay to that and work on that good base, we’ll be right.
“It’s nice to win, but I don’t want to chase a premiership flag, and I don’t want to bring players in to make us better but work on what we have and what is coming through and make it a place where people want to play for Junee. We need that to be the same in all grades, and our goal should be to work on that foundation for now and the next generation of players.”
Lamb had the full support of Diesels President David Holt, who was pleased to have the popular club identity committed to the League Tag outfit.“He makes a lot of time for the team, and he takes the time to teach the players the game,” Holt said. Taking his rugby league knowledge and putting it into league Tag is good for the club.”
“He is a good communicator, and he has an excellent rapport with his players, and he is expanding it a little bit and doing a great job.” With women’s tackle becoming more prevalent in country competitions, Lamb is also helping the Diesels on that front.
“We took a team down to the tackle carnival in Albury recently, and while the girls weren’t overly competitive against much more experienced clubs, they came up with a victory on the second day,” Holt said.
“We have got plans with Women’s Rugby League, and we have for a while, and Gav has been an inspiration in helping put that together, and I dare say that he will have lot of involvement with that in the future.”
