Tara Murray
New Taylors Lakes Football Club coach Steve Burns wasn’t sure he wanted to coach again.
The former Lions and Hillside mentor stepped away from coaching after the 2019 Essendon District Football League season, after 13 years at the helm of the two clubs.
While unsure what his football future held, there was one job in the back of his mind, that he would always be interested in.
That one job was at Taylors Lakes, where he had taken the club to premiership success.
After recently being named the Lions interim coach after the departure of Charles Cuzzupi, Burns has been appointed to the role full time until the end of 2024.
“It is exciting,” Burns said after his first game in charge. “It’s good to be back at Taylors Lakes.
“I want to put something back into them. I coached them for eight years and now it’s time to put back into them, after the last couple of years.”
Burns said when he signed on as interim coach, they were keen to see how that went before making it official for the next couple of years.
He said he couldn’t have asked for much more since returning to Lionheart Reserve.
“We sort of had an idea that it was going to happen,” he said.
“I wanted to get into it and have a quick look around and do the right thing by the outgoing coach and the club.
“Once all the boxes were ticked, I signed up for two years. Charles has been really good and it’s been a smooth transition.”
Burns said the first thing he noticed about the division 2 side was how young the playing group was.
He said they had impressed him immensely. In their first game under Burns, they lost to ladder leaders Oak Park, 11.12 (78)-8.9 (57).
“They’ve all been really supportive,” he said. “They impressed me the first week I saw them and they’ve been nothing short of amazing.
“They fronted up and gave me the respect I was looking for. They played exactly the way that I wanted them to play.
“It was about effort and head over the football. They were a different side to the last time they played Oak Park.”
Joining Burns on the side lines are several former players, who have returned to help Burns, for the rest of this year.
Burns said they had no expectations for this season, with a focus on the future.
“I want to get a look around and get to see as many players as I can and work out what I need,” he said.
“We’ve already started recruiting and signed three players for next year already which is great to get the ball rolling.
“A lot of work needs to be done. We need some more experience and leadership to help take us forward.”
The Lions have the bye this weekend.
