Tara Murray
The Sunbury Lions are hoping to take a scalp in the final few rounds of the Ballarat Football League season.
Heading into the weekend’s match with Melton, the Lions only wins had come against the two teams below them on the ladder.
Lions coach Travis Hodgson said getting a scalp would be nice to finish off the season.
“We play Melton who is top and then Ballarat who is second and Bacchus Marsh,” he said.
“When you have only beaten the two teams below us, then a couple of big scalps is the next step for us.
“We want to knock over some teams, beat a side in finals contention, in premiership contention.”
The Lions got their third win of the season last week against Melton South.
Hodgson said the result was the continuation of a good run of form for the team.
“The last five weeks have been pretty good,” he said.
“We’ve had two wins there against the bottom two sides. The performances around that, Darley we lost by about a kick, East Point was not much in it and Ballarat was on the siren.
“We’ve played some really good football, the numbers showed that. It was enjoyable to watch them sing the song again.”
Hodgson said while they had played some good football in the last five weeks, it summed up their season. The Lions had been hoping to play finals pre-season, but that was out of the mix after dropping a number of matches early on.
Hodgson said they were close, but not close enough this season. He said consistency within the playing group early hadn’t helped either.
“We’ve lost seven games by under 20 points in our 10 losses” he said. “Melton did get a hold of us, but we haven’t had any other side do that.
“We can’t put it down to bad luck. We’re not consistently winning games. We’ve been in games five to 10 minutes to go, but just not good enough to get that done.
“It sums up our season. In all the 50-50 games we have lost them all.”
Hodgson, who is already contracted for next season, said despite the disappointing nature of the season, there were some positives.
They’ve seen a number of players get opportunities, with 42 players playing seniors. Just four players have played every game, showing the up and down nature of the season.
Hodgson said they do have a bit of an eye on next season.
“The club and myself want to win more games going forward,” he said. “We’re on the right track.
“We know that we are close.
“Hopefully the group sticks pretty tight. We have a really solid platform to get better.”
The Lions are due to face Melton at Clarke Oval on Saturday.
