Braehead Clan Head Coach Ryan Finnerty admits he has the odd disagreement with assistant Richard Hartmann – but loves working with him.
The Slovakian returned to the bench for this season to continue a good relationship with the Clan coach after working together last year.
As Clan get ready to face Manchester Storm on Saturday at Braehead Arena, Finnerty is expecting a tough test and insists they won’t be taking Omar Pacha’s side lightly.
“I loved working with Richard and we had a great partnership going,” Finnerty said. “It’s been good to have him back this week, bringing a new set of eyes and a different voice to things.
“He’s definitely not a yes man. We have two different trains of thought on a lot of things, but we always thrash it out and discuss it.
“With the European background, compared to my North American background, we can clash on some things, but we always find a way.
“Looking ahead to the game, it’s so early right now and a lot of teams are playing a gung-ho type of game. We expect them to come at us and we know they’ve improved, probably in all areas.
“It’s so early though and it’s tough to break teams down systematically when you haven’t seen them yet, but it’s going to be a high energy game for sure.
“It’s encouraging to see they’ve improved, so we’re definitely not taking them lightly by any stretch.”
Clan head along the M8 on Sunday to face Edinburgh Capitals, with a new look team led by new coach Michal Dobron.
Finnerty admits it will be something of a step into the unknown when the team go to Murrayfield on Challenge Cup business.
He added: “Edinburgh is always tricky for the first time, with the new guys and that big sheet. Again, we don’t know a whole lot about them so early in the season.
“They’ll have ‘Fully’ (Travis Fullerton) in goal, so that will make them much better than the last couple of weeks. They certainly seem to have built a strong team.
“First time going there this season, as I said, we don’t know a great deal about them so we’ll be going in blind. But we’ll go in and take Saturday, see how we do then roll into Sunday at Murrayfield.”
(Image permission: Al Goold Photo)
