The Lions were probably flattered in the end by their 19-point defeat at the hands of the Tigers who controlled the game from the outset.
“I thought we took a step back from the week before in terms of our intensity and effort levels,” Clarke said.
“It’s always disappointing to lose when you know you’re capable of playing much better.”
“We played what I would call ‘reckless footy’ in the first quarter and they went on to have 13 scoring shots to two by quarter time. Labrador missed a few chances in front of goal so we were lucky not to be totally out of the game by quarter time.”
Clarke did find some positives among the side including the performance of young midfielder Ryan Harwood.
“Ryan was very good - so much so that the Labrador coaches saw fit to sit one of their players on him for most of the day,” he said.
“Bryce Retzlaff also tried hard all day. He kicked four of our eight goals.”
“Matt Austin was clean and showed a lot of class. He’s a very skillful player.”
The Reserves continued to trial young players in previously foreign roles to help fast-track their development.
“We played Brad Harvey down back on former Lions champion Tim Notting. He spent two and a half quarters down there before Notting did his knee and came from the field.”
“We saw Notting as their best forward and although Brad gave away a few inches, he’s a big strong lad and held his own quite well.”
“Niall McKeever has been great for us in defence, but we started him at full-forward and then swapped him with Broc McCauley in the ruck. He keeps developing week by week.”
“Don Barry has been playing more through the midfield rotation, after notoriously playing up forward for most of last year. He looked lively, had over 20 touches and has been in our top three or four for the year I reckon.”
Clarke has also been pleased with the input from Lions NSW/ACT Scholarship Player Richard Newell who is currently living in Queensland and playing with the Lions Reserves in his final year before he hits drafting age.
“We’ve been really happy with him,” Clarke said.
“I honestly didn’t know a lot about him before the season started other than he was a freak atlete and left footer. He plays his best footy in the midifeld and his work ethic is supreme - he runs AFL level GPS numbers. But probably the best feature of his game is his courage. There’s been a number of times I’ve held my breath in the coaches box with the way he throws himself at contests.”
Like the senior team, the Lions Reserves have a schedule Bye this weekend so will have to wait two weeks before getting a chance at redemption against Southport on Saturday 23 April at Chelmer.
“We’ll have a few days off. It’s probably a good time for our Western Magpies boys to go back and take a breather. It’s been full-on for those guys.”
