While the Lions’ 10-point loss saw them slip to sixth on the ladder, Reserves Coach Nathan Clarke said he was pleased with the team’s performance.
“I guess there’s no such thing as a ‘good’ loss, but I thought our guys were terrific all day and really showed that they can more than match it against the best teams in the competition,” Clarke said.
“After the game, quite a few people commented that it was one of the best State League games they had seen in years and that it was of a VFL standard.”
“But it certainly wasn’t one out of the box. That sort of performance and effort is what I expect from our boys every week,” he said.
The Lions Reserves hosted their first NEAFL match for 2011 at their new ‘home’ at Chelmer Oval and received great service from their local Western Magpies top-up players.
“We had nine top-up Magpies boys who all put in a really good effort,” Clarke said.
“Scott Clarke was probably our best Western Magpies top-up player and carried a lot of the ruck duties.”
“We put him in the ruck after Broc McCauley was ruled out during the week. We also thought it would allow us to give Bart McCulloch a bit more time up forward.”
“While it seemed like a risk at the time, I was always confident in the move and it payed back in spades. Even though Thunder ruckman Kenrick Tyrrell was named as their best player, I really thought Clarke did a terrific job.”
“But all the Magpies boys did their bit. There were some great passages of play where a number of Magpies players linked up to help create scoring opportunities.”
Clarke said there were also plenty of positives from the Lions listed players who shone against the NEAFL’s best side.
“The NT Thunder are the benchmark of the Northen Conference, but we always fancied ourselves against them because we had a good mix of players and played them at home,” he said.
“NT’s full-forward Darren Ewing kicked five goals in first half, but then Tom Collier moved down back and shut him right out of the game. Tom was clearly our best player on the day.”
“There was also a great little duel between Mitch Golby and Ross Tungatalum. Tungatalum is the best small forward in the competition and I didn’t notice him having a huge influence on the game. So, by and large, Mitch did a great job and has been in really good form now for the past five weeks.”
“Jared Polec was good and keeps steadily improving. There are still some things that need to be ironed out of his game, but he certainly gives us something that we don’t have a lot of with his ball carrying ability.”
This Saturday afternoon, the Lions Reserves will return to Chelmer to play reigning QAFL Grand Finalists Labrador for the second time in 2011.
“They gave us a good touch up last time,” Clarke said.
“But since then we’ve certainly improved and they’ve had a couple of injury concerns as well. So it could be a good chance for us to bounce back.”
The quality of the new NEAFL competition seems to have improved again in 2011 with all sides capable of playing Finals football. Remarkably, local Queensland powerhouse Southport are anchored to the bottom of the ladder with just one win from their seven matches, while only percentage separates 5th place from 9th.
“I didn’t see too many games last year, but the feeling I get is that the competition has gone another 5-10% up again this year. It’s great for footy in Queensland,” Clarke said.
“It’s great for our Club to be part of it. We were poor last year, but our players are improving and the continuity of having Western Magpies players on hand has made a huge difference.”
