Tara Murray
The Sunbury Lions are looking to bolster their under-18.5 program for next year’s Ballarat Football League season.
The Lions have put in a strong new coaching line up which will have a big focus on development and helping the players get to the next level.
Tony Lucas, who had a year off after helping coach the reserves side in previous years, takes on the coaching role.
He will be supported by Mark Scanlon and Chris Egan.
Lucas said they were looking for some players to bolster the squad.
“We’re pretty excited about and looking forward to coaching the side going forward,” he said. “We’re looking to reach kids that might see what we’re doing and want to come down.
“It’s about developing players at every level. That is what our job is and we’re looking to develop those players, nothing else.”
Lucas has a long playing and coaching career. He said he hadn’t planned on coaching this season but after putting together a really good coaching group he was keen to see what they could do.
A change to age groups in the Ballarat league has impacted the Lions.
The age group has gone from under-19s to under-18.5s. With the Lions juniors playing in the Riddell District Football League, they have an under-17 side.
It means that many players just have one season in under-18.5s before having to go into senior football.
Lucas said they were hoping it didn’t have too much impact on them.
The Lions have already been back at training for four weeks and will focus on skills before Christmas and then running after they return.
Lucas said he’d already had conversations with senior coach Matt White about continuing that pathway into senior football.
“There is the opportunity to get into the senior program,” he said. “If I think someone is ready I’ll chat with Matt and if Matt thinks someone is ready he’ll chat with me and we’ll get them ready to play senior football.
“In my three years at Rupertswood we had 30 players go on and play senior football. That’s strong numbers.”
The group is training on Monday and Wednesday nights at Clarke Oval from 6pm until December 11.
They will start back on January 20 for the second part of pre-season.
