UPDATE: BLUE TONGUES TRYOUTS

The Blue Tongues held tryouts on the Gold Coast on Tuesday night, and from all accounts, it sounds as if it was very good for the first skate. The coaching staff seem very switched on and excited for the upcoming season, as do the players that were on the ice.

There was quite a few new faces and sadly not to many old ones, however it would appear that for every player that the team has lost, they seem to have picked up a suitable replacement.

New players to keep an eye out for include; Jack Conner who has just come back from being away playing for Australia, Michael Blackwell who has been playing for the Northstars for the past couple of seasons and a tonne of young local players that appear to have done ALOT of off season training.

The 2008 Blue Tongues Coaching Staff consist of Head Coach Kevin Sands, ex Bluetongues goalie Milan Novysedlak and Team GM, Dave Emblem. On Tuesday night there were also a couple of other senior players from the Gold Coast that were assisting with other things. All in all it sounds like a very well put together team of staff with a wealth of experience between them, which showed in the first 5 minutes of try outs.

Kevin announced that the Blue Tongues have signed Simo Mustonen as our starting goalie. Simo comes comes from Finland, and those who followed the team last year may remember him from early skates last year. There are also 3 imports signed from overseas, however no names have been released at this time. There were a good number of imports trying out Tuesday for the final 3 import spots.

The first 3/4 speed scrimmage showed how tough it will be this season for visiting team as you have 0 seconds to pick the puck up in your defensive zone and make a play before you get hit. should be fun.

Player returning from last year (this list is not final, and does not include players not yet confirmed):

Alex Hall
Nick Jones
Ross Howell
Ben Spillane
Brenton Cooney
Ben Maher
Jon Bale
Dave Upton (to be confirmed)