On Monday, the Novi Sad Dukes held their last full practice before their season and the league opener on Sunday. Dukes will, after months of practices, travel to Kragujevac where they will try to continue their streak of success against the Wild Boars.
“I would like to win the South”, says the new Dukes coach Predrag Nikolić. “Anything more than that, it’s hard to say when we don’t know much about the new teams in the League.”
The underdog that beat the championship team from Kragujevac twice last year will start the year with a little more respect this time around, but whether they’ll be able to repeat last year’s score or even leapfrog over their main rivals remains to be seen.
Strong wind in Novi Sad on Monday made it hard to stand on the sidelines let alone practice, but the Dukes led by quarterback Čaba Juhas were able to demonstrate a little bit of their new and improved offense.
They did it already in a friendly against a team from the National Championship of Serbia, Pančevo Panthers, torching them for 33 points and scoring with ease.
“We’re playing differently than last year, which suits me fine. It looked good so far, we’ll see at the real game”, said the team’s starting quarterback Juhas.
“I can’t say how better we are overall, but this year we look a lot quicker than we did last season”, says the coach. “I think we’re the fastest team, and I tried to take advantage of that.”
At the same time, the team’s defense struggled. Not surprisingly, because Nikolić, who was the coach for the offense last year, is currently the only coach on the team. After being given the job, he jokingly said that they might get another coach if a player decides to retire. So far, none has.
”Last year it was different; the offense was struggling in practices, and our defense was better. This year, I added a lot of new things to the offense, and everybody accepted it and learned it quickly, while on defense it hasn’t been that easy so far”, he says.
Dukes will start the season with a similar roster to last year. A few lineman has left the team, but key players are still here – Juhas, RB Marko Đanić on offense, and safety Miloš Nikšić with linebackers Aleksandar Lazarević and Ivan Međugorac on defense. Međugorac will be one of few to miss the Kragujevac game because of injury.