By Tara Murray
The Sunbury Lions are keen to return to the pointy end of the Ballarat Football League season, stung by a rare non-finals appearance last season.
For the first time since joining the BFL, the Lions didn’t feature in finals. New coach Travis Hodgson said that it really hurt the playing group.
Having watched the Lions from the opposition coaches box the past three years, Hodgson said he was keen to help them return to finals this year.
“I can tell you that last year stung the group,” he said. “Having been so successful, playing finals has been part of the course. You can tell by the energy around the place that they want to try and get back into the top half.
“From my point of view, we want to be playing finals. We’ve got a tough draw so we won’t look any further than that.
“If we make finals we would have earned it.”
It has been a stable off season for the Lions, with the inclusions well outweighing the departures. Leigh and Ben Brennan were early inclusions and have been joined by Daylan Kempster, whose father played in two premierships with the Lions in the 1990s.
Kempster has previously played VFL.
Hodgson said all three would add some height to the side.
“Daylan played his junior football at the club before moving away. He is a centre half-forward and back.
“Leigh is a key forward and Ben can play at either end. We’ll likely play him back.”
Dylan Featon, who comes across from Rupertswood, will also step into the side.
Hodgson said a number of younger players who had played senior football at other clubs would add depth to the squad.
For Hodgson though, some of the biggest inclusions have come from within including Mitch Conn and more recently, Lachhie Bramble, who will line up just with the Lions and not play VFL this season.
Jack Sheahan, who has had several injury-plagued seasons, has looked good in the pre-season, as has Mick Edwards who missed the back half of last year.
“We’ve got a lot more depth considering we haven’t recruited a lot,” Hodgson said.
“We’ve got guys from within the club who didn’t play much, who are up and about.”
The inclusions of Sheahan and Leigh Brennan mean Grant Valles is likely to return to defence.
The only notable outs on the clearance list are Aaron Christensen and Jack Fenner.
Hodgson said they were still likely to see Christensen this year though.
“He has moved to Sydney for work,” he said.
“We looked at the options of flying him down. He will play the first half in Sydney, before he comes back to us for the second half of the season.”
Adam Short, who the Lions had signed, has moved to Byron Bay and won’t pull on the jumper.
The Lions start their season away on April 13 against Darley.
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