By Nick Creely
Pakenham continue to fly well under the radar in the AFL Outer East season.
And that’s exactly how the fourth-placed Lions – who have played some inspired footy in 2021 after being promoted from Division 1 – will like it.
Well-coached, systems-based, hard-nosed and always up for the scrap, the Lions are undoubtedly a dark horse in the premiership race underneath the perennial powers of Beaconsfield, Cranbourne and Narre Warren.
Despite many tipping the Lions to struggle adjusting to the Premier Division, it’s been a rise of some note into fourth-spot.
Lions coach Ash Green told the Gazette that they can really trouble sides this season, and has been impressed with his side’s ability to play a team-orientated game while also keeping a focus on fostering the next wave of Pakenham footballers.
Statistically, the Lions have all the hallmarks of a finals side, averaging 77 points a game and 63 against, and similar to the grand final season of 2019, are seeing a scattering of goal kickers which make it tough for opposition clubs to plan for
“We’ve got a similar side to 2019 when we played Doveton in the grand final, so we’ve been confident in the list we’ve got,” he said.
“I’m focusing on development as well – we understand the fact we need to be winning, but we’ve got some really good kids at the club and they’re always knocking on the door.
“We’re even in the sense because we can play guys in many different positions – it gives us great flexibility.
“We can surprise sides in how we set up – we’ve got no real standouts where 30 touches or seven goals is the key.
“We all pitch in, do the hard work we need, and hopefully that’ll give us the right result – we’re a work in progress, and hopefully people are seeing that.”
Its three losses this season – to Woori Yallock in Round 9 by 16 points, to Cranbourne in Round 8 by 12, and to the reigning premiers Narre Warren by seven – all came after being in winnable positions.
In a sign of the maturing attitude out of the club, Green said there was no such thing as an “honourable loss” now at the club in an even competition, similar to Division 1 in 2019, where there so many different conditions to encounter on a week-to-week basis.
“It’s all good to be competitive against the Narres, Beaconsfields and Cranbournes, but we’re in a position where we won’t accept an honourable loss, we want to win these games if we can,” he said
“I thought (2019) was even, and this year you like to see a fairly close season, it keeps players and supporters engaged.
“We have to understand how to play on smaller grounds and those teams need to understand how to play on big grounds as well.
“If you take your foot off, you can let a game slip, that’s for sure.”
Impressively, Green said, the Lions bounced back on the weekend against Upwey Tecoma with a commanding 68-point win against Upwey Tecoma.
“We did a lot of soul-searching after the loss to Woori Yallock – we were in a position similar to Narre, and the pressure came and they knocked us over,” he said.
“We needed to rebound, we made a few changes – it was a tight first quarter contest, and after that our pressure acts went up.
“It was a really good win, and it was great to get a good spread of goal kickers as well.”
The Lions – under the coaching of Green – hasn’t been about one or two frequent goal kickers, rather a collective of individuals who all pull their weight, but he admitted that the Lions do need to continue working on kicking bigger scores.
“Our goal is to get around 100 points, or 15 goals, and if you do that you’re in a really strong position to win the game,” he said.
“We probably haven’t been able to do that, but to be fair last time we played Upwey we were disappointed with our kicking, but we’ve got a lot of flexibility, we won’t rely on one guy to kick six or seven goals a game.
“What worked well over the weekend was having Darcy Hope coming back; Josh Tynan kicked four, Stephen Morey three, Joel Sarlo two, so we were able to have a really good spread.”
Saturday’s clash with Narre Warren at Kalora Park looms as a beauty – in Round 3, the Lions pushed the Magpies to the brink and led at three quarter time before the reigning premiers found just enough momentum to scrap over the line.
With the likes of Josh Tynan, Zac Stewart, Stephen Morey, Liam Tyrrell and many more senior players leading the charge, there is a degree of confidence they can take it right up to Shane Dwyer’s champion team.
Green said his side was ready to take on the challenge of the third-placed Magpies.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge – Narre’s a fantastic club, but we know if we give everything, we’d like to think we’re in a better position than in Round 2,” he said.
“We’re really excited about this weekend.”
