Tara Murray
The Sunbury Lions’ Ballarat Football League season so far gets a pass mark from coach Travis Hodgson.
The Lions sit 3-2 having have their first bye of the season this weekend.
Hodgson said they would have taken those results at the start of the season. He said they were traveling along okay.
“We set out the season in blocks and we aimed to win three of the first four games,” he said.
“To be 3-2 we will take it. After being 1-4 the last two years there is plenty of upside.
“The next block is Darley, Bacchus Marsh, Redan at Clarke Oval and Ballarat at Ballarat.
“We’ve got a chance with some really winnable games. We need to win at least half of them.
“At the halfway mark we want to be ahead of the draw and we have 5-3 as a pass mark and hope to exceed that.”
Hodgson said with a tough back part of the season, they needed to bank wins to play finals, which was their aim.
Hodgson said for the most part they had been happy with how they had played the opening rounds.
He said their most recent performance against Darley, had been really disappointing.
“We were pretty disappointing and Darley was pretty good,” he said.
“We were outplayed for most of the day and the game blew open in the last quarter. It was disappointing to be put to the sword.
“There wasn’t enough resilience against a side that will play finals. I think the top three sides will be Melton, Darley and Sebastopol.
“We’ve played two of those teams and failed in both games.”
The Lions entered the match with Darley without key defenders Harrison Minton-Connell and Tyson Lever.
Minton-Connell made his Victorian Football League debut for Essendon.
Lever missed the game through injury and was in a moon boot on game day.
“Once we lost Lever and Minton-Connell during the week up against it,” Hodgson said.
“He has some appointments this week [last week] to find out the extent of damage and could be in a bit of trouble.
“We will know more by the end of the week. He’s a big loss for us, our captain. He’s an outstanding player and his leadership and setting up from behind is really important.
“It’s a big blow for us, but every club has got to deal with injuries though.”
The Lions next week are on the road against Bacchus Marsh.
