THE league season for Trowbridge gets underway on September 8 so when you look at it that way, it boils down to just 14 training sessions.

That’s not a lot of time to cram everything in so the planning has started straightaway following confirmation of my head coaching role there last week.

I’ve already been thinking about how I’d like to go about things when pre-season starts next week and it’s been occupying my thoughts quite a bit.

There will be a lot of things to take in on day one, but the first task will be to meet the group of players and find out what they want.

Coaching at a local level has different challenges to a professional club.

The players have their full-time jobs and families to take into consideration but in every club you get players who are just really focussed on what they want to do when they walk into the club.

What I’m really keen on getting is the town behind its rugby team.

It’s important that you have players really playing for the club, rather than passing through, and if we can get that and the town’s support, it could be a really exciting time.

I’ll be contacting the likes of Mark Kent – champion boxer Nick Blackwell’s trainer at the town’s Contender Gym – to see how his expertise might be able to help us.

Of course, returning to coaching after a break means there is much for me to brush up on.

I’ll be making sure I’m as well up as possible with the coaching side of things and that includes dealing with new laws, especially in areas such as the scrum.

Rugby, more than any other sport, is always evolving and it’s important to keep up with what is happening.

Send your thoughts to Steve via ohoulihan@newswilts.co.uk