Defending premiers lock in coach and welcome back a favourite son

Former QLD Cup player and local junior Jack Quinn will line up for the Fishies in 2024 to give returning coach Shawn Townsend another impressive forward at his disposal.

After spending time with the Mackay Cutters in QLD and the Penrith Panthers underage sides, the talented forward will return home after missing much of this season with injury.

"He's signed, it gives us more depth and more options where to play him," Townsend said of Quinn.

"He can play front row, back row or in the middle, it gives us a depth with the other front rowers there as well."

Quinn will return to the Peter McDonald Premiership as arguably one of the top forwards in the competition and will slot straight into a forward which will largely be unchanged.

Chanse Burgess has left the Fishies for Coolah while Dubbo CYMS have picked up Castlereagh League forward of their own.

"We signed another young fella who played out at Dunedoo over the last couple of years, Jarrod Spicer," Townsend said.

"He is another guy who is capable of playing in the middle or on an edge.

"There might be a few other ones as well."

Having tasted success in 2023, Townsend's future as coach of the Fishies was never really in question from the outside looking in.

Determined to not rest on their morals, the Fishies head coach said the club has already put processes in place to improve next year.

"I think it's all going good, we've got everyone coming back other than 'Burgo' (Burgess)," he said.

"We just have to keep improving now, the club has done a few things differently. We've put on a trainer to train the boys before Christmas then after for a few weeks to take it out of my hands.

"We just want to be a bit more professional so the boys have started to do a bit of training a couple nights a week."

Notorious for having his side fit for round one, Townsend won't run CYMS' training sessions for a few more months.

Instead, new under 18s coach and club legend Luke Jenkins will have the task of getting the players into shape.

"We just have to get better, we can't be the same as we were last year otherwise, we will get left behind," Townsend said.

"Whether that is personnel, game style, recovery or review and so on, it's the whole lot.

"We did a bit of a review at the end of the season but we knew what we needed to work on. A bit of it was me and a bit was the club in general just as ways we can improve.

"It's only little things like checking in on blokes after training and games to see how they recover."