It's so good to be back here again
Having fun with all my friends
When everybody says hello
You know there's nowhere else to go
It's so good
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
Yeah, it's so good
(Ooh, ooh, ooh)
It's so good to be back home again
So Good To Be Back Home Again - The Tourists
Fair play to Coventry Rugby - not only has the 2023-24 season's kit been unveiled well before the start of the season proper, it's also purchasable as early as the first pre-season friendly.
Over the years, the availability of replica kit, or lack thereof, has often caused some 'frustrations' amongst supporters and rightly so. If it's not on general sale until October, as has been the case in some seasons past, then the opportunity to wear it at games, home or away (or both) has already been reduced by a good few and the less games it's worn to, the more costly in effect it becomes.
So Cov has earned itself a whole heap of brownie points already in my book (or blog in this case) this season by ensuring its early release well ahead of any anticipated date.
When I first saw the new kit I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed; disappointed even. The thing about Cov home shirts is that they've always been instantly recognisable purely by the colours and design. Blue and white hoops, of varying thicknesses, but hoops nonetheless - it's a combination that has been synonymous with the club over the years.
Take away the badge from this new kit and you'd be struggling to identify the Cov brand unless you knew the sponsors.
Is that a problem? Well probably not, but without basing this on anything other than my own opinion, I think there will be a fair few die-hards who’ll struggle to move away from the good old thicker blue and white stripes (stripes which go from front to back). And sales of shirts must be an important source of income to the club, so the popularity or otherwise of a shirt does have implications…
It's not an unattractive kit by any means and having looked at it a good few times already today, I can sense it growing on me. It’s got a feel of the away strip of a couple of seasons’ back to it, and that proved popular - but that was with a more traditional home kit rather than this one which seems to be a replacement for it.
Perhaps the club is intending to switch the kits around this season so that the away kit has more of a 'home feel' to it? Despite my clear reservations about the home kit, I hope this isn’t the case. Now the break from the norm has been made, in many ways I'd like to see an entirely left field design for the away strip. Maybe something in red and green even to reflect the colours of the ‘new‘ badge.
Maybe the intention is that there‘s only to be one shirt to double up for home and away games? It wouldn’t be difficult to ascertain what colours other clubs will be using and ensure there‘s no obvious clash. It would certainly cut down costs, although I imagine there might well be a requirement by the RFU to have separate and distinct home and away strips.
I did wonder if there would be a return to a more traditional style of shirt this season given it's the club's sesquicentennial (I knew my Latin would come in handy one day).
A modern twist on the old 60/70's iconic Cov shirt would have been a nice touch.
Cov released a couple of extra shirts two seasons back (or maybe three now) to support the NHS/local community so maybe there will be an additional leisure shirt to follow.
The new kit isn’t something I want to appear shirty about, it's just that it‘s not what I was expecting and I'm a little surprised the club has opted for such a marked change. As with the club badge, I'm sure it's something we'll all get used to in time.
On a far more positive note, the decision to use David Opoku to launch the kit is absolutely inspired.
I love the choice of background music and I'm sure if I can appreciate it in my 60s, then it will appeal even more to the generations below me who will be far more familiar with this style of hip hop/rap. It’s another realignment away from the traditions of the past that had, for far too long, held back a club that failed to identify with newer generations of supporters who have grown use to multimedia advertising and the use of social media to reach out to them far beyond just a club website.
David Opoku is very much the face of Coventry’s future, a promising player from the city who reflects the multidimensional/multicultural direction the club must continue to take if it is to reach out to the wider community and grow further in both size and stature.
It’s a really welcome move, perhaps another Dan Lewis inspired decision, but whoever is behind it, it’s a very positive step forward. I can’t imagine any of the Premiership sides will have come up with anything better.
Opoku is clearly a talented young man off the field as well as on it. I'd be happy to have it as the lead out song for the players as they emerge from the tunnel come three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon - certainly in preference to some of the songs used in recent times. It would be great to have a Coventry anthem - this might not be it for some, but a song written and performed by one of Coventry's own might prove a little more motivational to those wearing the shirt.
And talking of David Opoku, hopefully this will be a break-through season for the youngster. I've seen him play a few times now and he's electric, one of those rare players who can generate real excitement in a crowd even if it’s just the anticipation of him receiving the ball. He's not just quick, he's really elusive and unpredictable, capable of running round defences rather than just through. With Cov playing such an attacking brand of rugby these days, out wide he'll see a fair bit of ball and whenever he does he's just the sort of player who will cause the opposition problems simply because of the threat he creates.
I wouldn’t mind betting he’ll make his Championship debut at some point this season.
Here’s hoping anyway.
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