Sheffield Steelers coach Aaron Fox on how he helped deliver 2023-24 grand slam

Yorkshire Post

Aaron Fox, head coach of Sheffield Steelers, looks back on 2023-24 Elite League season which saw his team deliver grand slam of league, cup and play-offs

Transcript

00:00 You obviously have an inclination when you're going through video, you're taking references,

00:07 you're talking to people who've played or coached certain players before, but when did

00:15 you kind of get an inkling that you had a pretty special group that could actually go

00:21 on and achieve something this season? Was it pretty early?

00:24 I think it was pretty early, but in saying that, I felt pretty good about our group's

00:30 early doors the last few years. We were pretty injury-free this year, which makes a huge

00:39 difference. The last couple of years we lost some key guys at some key moments that we

00:44 weren't able to replace. We made a couple in-season additions this year in Corns, which

00:52 was one of them who came in and did a really, really good job. Absolutely flies, defends

00:58 well, helped our power play from that regard as well. We didn't really have to make any

01:06 changes this year, though. We did bring some guys in for injury cover, Vanell and Harps

01:13 in that regard. Keeley went back home and played in the East Coast League, so we made

01:18 a couple of small changes there for some depth pieces. When we did have some bodies out,

01:23 we were replenished pretty nicely there and were able to grind our way throughout the

01:30 year.

01:31 You need the quality, you need the depth, but also you hear coaches say a lot, you need

01:36 a bit of look sometimes. On the injury front, is that the bit of "look" that you perhaps

01:40 needed, which you lacked in those previous seasons as well?

01:43 A little bit, yeah. The Newham's injury was a six-week injury for him to rehabilitate

01:51 his shoulder, then he was re-dislocated at the end of the year, just before the last

01:57 game there. That was probably the only... Wist was out for a while. Wist wasn't 100%

02:02 all year long. He started with the shoulder, and then he had the hernia midway through

02:09 the year that he had surgery on and came back. It still wasn't great to finish the year,

02:14 which is why he didn't go to the national team. Jonesy was out for three to four weeks

02:19 with the knee as well. From a high end, we didn't lose any of our top six forwards, we

02:27 didn't lose any of our top four D for any extended period of time, which we call lucky

02:34 for sure. That's part of this business. We stayed pretty clean of that, which made a

02:39 huge difference.

02:40 Coming in, given the sort of disappointments of the previous two years, we've talked about

02:46 it before, but coming in, did you feel that bit of extra pressure as a coach? Perhaps?

02:52 No, I don't think so. I think there's always pressure in this business. Certain clubs,

02:58 the expectations are higher and there's more pressure in certain spots, but that just comes

03:06 with the territory in this business. I'm pretty confident in the work I put in. Whether that

03:14 translates into trophies, that's not going to change from my end. I'm still going to

03:21 be that guy that's first guy in and last guy out, which is the way it's supposed to be

03:29 in this business. I think in the summer here, it's a little bit different. Now, I feel like

03:36 we've got a pretty good core group of guys that will be back next year, so I can be a

03:41 little bit more selective and patient on things this summer, which is nice. Whereas the turnover

03:47 was a bit higher in the last couple of years. We just won three and I can guarantee you

03:54 the pressures and the bar's been set now for next year and that's never going to change

04:00 in this situation. I'm completely comfortable with it.

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