May has been an important month for Botany Swarm as we continue our preparations for the 2019 NZIHL season. We had preseason games against West Auckland Admirals on Saturday 4 May (at Avondale) and on Saturday 11 May (at The Hive) and despite a couple of losses, these games gave the squad a great opportunity to implement the various systems we have been practicing over the last couple of months, and to experiment with various combinations.

Our four import players have all arrived and have settled in well, and the squad is really starting to take shape, with all players fighting hard to earn their spot on the game-day roster, including several junior players that have joined the squad over the off-season stepping up and pushing their case for selection.

We held our annual team training camp at The Hive on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May, which allowed us to continue to refine our systems and to identify our roles as players, and to set some individual and team goals for the 2019 season.

Unfortunately the start of our season was delayed with Canterbury Red Devils unable to fly out of Christchurch for Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May due to heavy fog. These games have been rescheduled for the weekend of 6 and 7 July, but having had a bye over Queens Birthday weekend, we are certainly looking forward to finally getting our season under way this weekend at The Hive against the Admirals! The full home game playing schedule can be found here. The crowd was fantastic in our preseason game a few weeks ago, so we hope this can continue and we look forward to your support this season!