Tara Murray
Taylors Lakes made a statement with a big win against Westmeadows in the Essendon District Football League division 2 competition.
After some up and down performances in recent weeks, the Lions headed to Willowbrook Reserve to face Westmeadows.
The Tigers had just lost one game for the season, but had failed in their last hit out against one of the top two sides.
On Saturday, the Lions put in almost a complete performance, winning 19.15 (129)-4.5 (29).
Lions coach Steve Burns said they were really happy with the performance.
“Westy had a couple out late with sickness through the club in the week,” he said. “We got them on a good day and played really well.
“We’ve been a little bit up and down with our form. Last week we played one quarter of good footy, against Hadfield we were good and then ordinary in some patches as well, but did enough to win.
“We played three and half quarters of really good footy.”
Burns said the key for them was to play their style of football and not let the Tigers get their running game going.
He said it was about pressuring them into making mistakes and not getting the space.”
With a couple of key forwards out, the Lions have looked at different avenues to find goals.
On Saturday, Lachie Rayner kicked five and Brendan Lucas kicked four.
“Lachie played full forward a bit of the time,” Burns said. “Brandon Raad is back from injury and is playing in the ruck.
“It frees Lachie to play other positions for us.
“Christian Petersen had a good game as did Brenden Lucas. We had a range of contributors.
Burns said the likes of Tomi Ibarra in game 200, Aaron Vendramini, Chris Vulic and Nick McIntosh all had good games.
“We didn’t have a bad player,” he said.
The Lions get this week off with a competition wide bye due to the King’s Birthday long weekend.
While the Lions sit undefeated, Burns said the group was in need of a break.
“Even last week we sent the players to the pool,” he said. “We’re happy to be undefeated, we’ve had four games away already.”
The Lions have a tough run after the bye, facing the Sunbury Kangaroos, Coburg Districts and Burnside Heights.
The Bears also remain undefeated after beating Hadfield, 19.18 (132)-6.7 (43) on Saturday.
In premier division, Keilor continued on its winning ways, while Deer Park made it two in a row.
While in division 1, St Albans smashed Rupertswood, Hillside suffered its first loss of the season to Maribyrnong Park, while Keilor Park lost to Moonee Valley.
