Turek goes from friend to foe

Jay Asser 07:13 24/01/2017
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  • Code red: Dubai Stallions' Kelly Susee. Credit: Chris Whiteoak.

    Brett Turek will be on the sidelines looking across at a different team than the one he left when the Stallions coach faces his former squad for the first time.

    The Dubai rivalry gets another jolt with Turek squaring off against the Barracudas, who he helped lead to a Desert Bowl championship last season before giving up blue for red.

    The memories, as well as relationships with Barracudas players and coaches, remain, but Turek is eager to stamp his mark from the other side and his players are excited to do their part tomorrow (Friday) at The Sevens.

    “The team is more excited. I think it adds a little bit more to the rivalry factor and the cross-town classic, if you will,” Turek said.

    “Sure it’ll be a bit of a surreal moment for me coaching against my old team, but it’s a new team and hopefully we’ll walk off that field with a victory.”

    Turek has moved on and guided the Stallions to a 1-1 mark to start the season, but the Barracudas have so far appeared to be stuck in reverse.

    The defending champions have come out of the gates winless through two games, with their most recent defeat coming to an Al Ain Desert Foxes side that tasted victory for the first time in four years.

    Their offence, which ran through opponents under Turek last year, has regressed and is struggling for consistency.

    Both Turek and Barracudas coach Kyle Jordan point to the integration of new players as the chief reason for the slow start, but Jordan admits not having his former offensive coordinator hasn’t helped the cause.

    “Right now we’re just not playing very good football. We’re still trying to find our identity as a team,” Jordan said.

    “Coach Brett, he’s got a lot of football experience and knowledge and the players respond to him. He and I have different styles and those styles complement one another, so we certainly miss having him nd his football mind.

    “It’ll be weird to see him on the other sideline for a change.”

    The Barracudas will get a boost with the return of quarterback Zavier Cobb, who missed the contest against Al Ain.

    Turek, of course, is well aware of what Cobb can do, as he is with running back Luke Norrey. When he made the switch to the Stallions over the summer, Turek stated match-ups with the Barracudas will “be more of a tactical game” considering his familiarity with their players.

    “I’m not going to sit here and say I know exactly what they’re going to call play-wise because they’ve changed their system up from what I run, but there’s certain things like I know how Luke [Norrey] runs certain ways, how Rich [Stead] releases on routes, how Zavier will look at how the field is spread out,” he said.

    There will be least one more meeting between the Stallions and Barracudas this season, but there’s no doubt striking first would mean something to Turek and his squad.

    FOXES OUT TO PROVE THEY’RE NO ONE-HIT WONDERS

    It may be early in the season, but if the Al Ain Desert Foxes jump into first place, even if it’s in a tie, Johnny Sharp believes the significance won’t be overstated.

    That’s what’s at stake when Sharp leads Al Ain into a clash against the undefeated Abu Dhabi Wildcats Friday at The Stevens.

    Forget being in first place, the Desert Foxes hadn’t even managed to win a game for four years until they beat the reigning champion Dubai Barracudas before the winter break. And now, their coach is ready to back up the breakthrough with another one.

    “It would be huge. It would kind of solidify that we have a strong team,” Sharp said.

    “I think some players or some coaches are looking at the first win as a fluke or that it just happened. It was just a matter of time and after getting this win (over the Barracudas), I think it’ll put us in a situation where people actually look at us as a team.”

    Sharp has been with the Desert Foxes long enough to know the pain of coming up short week after week, year after year. But many of his players who featured in last month’s victory are newcomers and Sharp has been encouraged with how they haven’t viewed one win as an end-game.

    “The good thing about [winning] is that the players weren’t really satisfied with it. That was the highlight of it,” he said. “There’s not a lot of conversation about it. They’re focused on the next game.”

    A second victory for Al Ain, however, will a challenge, especially if star running back Vivaldi Tulysse is back on the field for Abu Dhabi.

    The reigning league MVP missed the first two games with a shoulder injury, but coach Tony Robinson labelled him as looking “really good” at practice and is hopeful for his return.

    Robinson said of his team’s strength in the ground game: “We have a really good stable of running backs, so with that it gives us some tools to work with in terms of being able to control the game, control the clock and make sure things go our way.”

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