Elite League 2025: “Intent, intensity and tenacity” in focus for Fruta Conquerors

Former Elite League champions Fruta Conquerors had to settle for a mid-table finish in the last season of the Elite League in 2024. Viewed in the context of the competition, however, it was a commendable performance from a young team who had earlier lost some of their upcoming stars to bigger clubs.
Nonetheless, the upcoming seventh season of the League will be met with fresh enthusiasm from the Tucville-based unit.
As he detailed their intense pre-season preparations, Head Coach Sampson Gilbert noted that he was satisfied with their progress.
“We’re looking forward to perform adequately in this season seven; we got a lot of new and young players in the group. We’ve been preparing for about six weeks, we did seven pre-season games so far, we won five, drew one and lost one. We participated in the Mash Cup tournament as a pre-season tournament; we won three of those games of the four,” the renowned Fruta Conquerors Head Coach exclusively told Guyana Times Sport.

He added, “I’m quite satisfied with the progress we’re making in terms of the learning and application of our game model and the philosophy of the team. Players are turning out to the session and the level of application is great.”
As such, Gilbert went on to divulge some key aspects of the team’s preparations with the mantra “intent, intensity and tenacity” being of utmost importance.
He disclosed, “There is three areas of application that we’re focused on: That is our intent, our intensity and the tenacity in which we apply and so, I think the players, they understand what is required and we’re working assiduously to supplement each other and to actually complement the programme by supporting all the different areas in terms of our physical preparation, our technical/tactical application and also our psychological awareness, because awareness psychologically, it lends support to the whole game preparation in terms of our tactical and positional awareness.
“We’re working hard to be psychologically prepared to work under pressure and apply all the various aspects of the game.”
Quizzed further about their priority areas for this year’s competition, Gilbert admitted that the team could have seen better results in Season Six with better application of principles. Thus, he expressed hopes to improve their professionalism.

“I think professionalism is the area that we need to embrace, obviously professionalism is not just being paid, but how you apply what you learn, and so by being able to apply the principles with intent, intensity and with a mindset of tenacity where you’re going in, playing consistently and you’re trying to be individually and collectively consistent,” Gilbert explained.
He went on to reason, “Last season we had some good results and then we had some results that could’ve been better had we played and applied what we wanted to apply better. So, we’re looking at how we prepare the players psychologically and mentally for the pressure that is to come in season seven.”
The Fruta Conquerors Gaffer went on to share his philosophy for fielding the best of his players, rather than looking to fill specific spots.
The Head Coach revealed, “Generally, we look at players in every area, at defence, at midfield, at forward and specifically, there is no particular area that we want to look at and say we have spots, fill them. The best 25 players that’s going to perform in pre-season, they are the 25 players that are going to be in this squad for season seven.”
“If you were in the squad before or if you’re new to the squad, you have a chance based on your understanding of the philosophy, based on your application, your intent, intensity and the tenacity. So, everybody that’s training and preparing have a chance to be in the squad based on how you apply what is required,” he further stated.
As disclosed by Gilbert, this season Fruta Conquerors will be taking the Elite League one game at a time.
“So, although we have a young team; we have the ability to do well and we will take the League game by game. We’re preparing for that, the pre-season preparation is mirroring what we expect in the League and although the players are young, that is not something that we want to focus [on]. The experience of the players will come based on their preparation,” he confidently shared with this publication.
The Elite League is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 9, 2025.