Jimmy Kennedy says he is up for the challenge after re-signing for a second year at Temora

Temora announced on Saturday night the re-appointment of Kennedy for a second year in charge of the club.

It came after the club slumped to a third consecutive loss that has them in seventh position, two games and considerable percentage outside the top five at the halfway mark of the season.

That has not prevented Kennedy from giving himself to the club for a second year. The 33-year-old admits he gave it a lot of thought before re-signing for 2024.

"The reason why I've done it, the club has a bit of belief in me even though things haven't worked out for us," Kennedy said.

"Look, realistically, we are going through a bit of a rebuild at the club. We did lose some key players and what we added all ended up getting injured.

"I have been thinking a lot about it lately...there are things a bit different here at the club culturally and that but the more I thought about it, the more I believe I think I'm the man for the job to take the club forward and change a few things.

"The committee and the older blokes, they're backing me in, they see what I'm trying to do. It's challenging for me, to try and change things, but I really reckon I'm up for it and I know what I need to bring to the club next year.

"I've got a bit more time up my sleeve now, I know what I need moving forward and I always believe to try and leave a place in a better position than what you started so it's only job half done for me at the moment."

MORE SPORT NEWS

Kennedy said the attitude towards the game is one aspect of the culture he wants to try and reshape.

"There's a few things I'm trying to change around the club, attitude towards footy and a few little things culturally but blokes are slowly buying in," he said.

"I've just got belief if we can add a bit of cattle, keep getting these boys to change their standards and hopefully next year we turn it around.

"It's also just to give them a bit of belief this year. It's hard times at the moment but people that have the right attitude should grow from the tough times and that's what I'm challenging the group to do anyway."

Kennedy believes he can call on his own life experiences to help lead Temora out of their rut.

"I like to keep things low key a bit and I'm new to the club so it's taken time to gel and I suppose get confidence in myself but what's giving me belief is that a few of the older blokes and the committee have real belief in me," he said.

"I suppose in my own personal career, I didn't start off with everything going my way, I had to dig deep and work hard and I guess that's what I want to bring to the club and get that belief in the boys too. I really feel that."

Losses to Barellan and Charles Sturt University over the past fortnight suddenly has a return to finals as unlikely for Temora, even though there is still half a season remaining.

Kennedy said his focus will now switch to driving better standards and he hopes that will reflect in their results.

"The focus is, we're going to have a chat on Tuesday night, but the standards I've talked about, we've got to set as a group and each other, it's just now holding blokes accountable and holding good standards as a group, moving into next year," he said.

"Who knows, we've still got that belief as a group that we can still hopefully win some games in the second half of the year but what's important to me is getting the boys to adopt good standards, hold each other accountable and that's what I'm going to talk about because that's what's important now, just making sure you're doing the right things as a group off the field."

Kennedy failed to finish last Saturday's loss to CSU due to a calf injury. It was the same calf he tore and missed six weeks for in the pre-season.

He will get the injury assessed on Tuesday but is hopeful that he will be right to face East Wagga-Kooringal in just under a fortnight's time.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: