By Lance Jenkinson
Deer Park is bullish about its flag chances in the Western Region Football League division 1 this season, despite a number of its premiership stars leaving over the summer.
The Lions, seven-time reigning premiers, have had to come to grips with the fact that star onballer/half-forward Kwame McHarg will no longer be in the blue and gold.
McHarg is described as “irreplaceable” by Lions coach Marc Bullen.
The smooth mover has been followed out the door by star goalkicker Jase Perkins, Troy Kelm, Max Bruin and Kevin Klix, along with retirees Jackson Barling and Shannon Byrnes.
While the Lions have made some quality acquisitions, including the return of veteran full-forward Brendan Fevola, rebounding defender Ryley Barrack and promising small forward Lachlan Smart, the departures are enough for some to contemplate a grand final without Deer Park for the first time since 2012.
Bullen already described last year’s premiership, including a miracle grand final comeback, akin to “climbing Mount Everest”, so he knows how much harder the task will be without McHarg and co.
Despite that, Bullen warned the football public against discounting his side as a serious premiership threat.
“There’s no doubt that Altona and Spotswood are very good sides, Hoppers Crossing have recruited well, Werribee Districts is always really good and the likes of Caroline Springs will be trying to get into the five – the competition is very good,” he said.
“Kwame McHarg is irreplaceable, but we’ve got everyone else covered, so we’re going to give ourselves every opportunity to win the premiership again.”
Where Bullen sees Deer Park’s most growth is from within the club.
The Lions incredible depth and lengthy injury list last season created an abnormal overflow of senior footballers.
Bullen expects those that were either pushed out of the starting 22 or on the mend from injury to stake their claims once again.
“We’ve had a bit of off season changeover with some key player retirements and some of our star players have decided to take up opportunities at other clubs, but we also had half a dozen starting 18 players that didn’t play in the grand final last year,” Bullen said.
“Hopefully your [Rodney] Van Riets, your [James] Wongs, your Bronson Booths, your Sohrob Ismails, these guys that didn’t play, they’ll get their opportunity and can fill some gaps.”
Jack Purton-Smith has been earmarked to take over McHarg’s role as a midfielder/ half-forward.
New recruit Smart and young gun Spiros Amarantidis will also play similar roles.
Smart is seen as a like-for-like replacement for Byrnes. Jack Redpath will be the focal point of the Lions forward line after the departure of Perkins.
Bullen was never totally satisfied with how the Redpath-Perkins combination worked, so he faces a task of meshing Redpath with Fevola and Wong in a three-pronged attack.
“Obviously we’ll have to work on our functionality,” Bullen said.
“Having Wong, Redpath and Fevola is a challenge for us, but a good challenge to have.”
Fevola will begin his second stint with Deer Park at the age of 39.
The former Carlton and Brisbane Lions spearhead is reportedly the fittest he has been in years.
“He could get a hold of a few sides,” Bullen said. It was inevitable that McHarg would leave Deer Park one day.
So often over the years, McHarg has been subject to attempted raids from local and VFL clubs, but stayed loyal to the Lions. McHarg, who will join Port Melbourne Colts, has left an incredible legacy at Deer Park.
“He’ll go down as the best ever Deer Park player and arguably the best ever to play in the WRFL,” Bullen said.
“He’s going to leave a huge hole because of his ability to score, his ability to win ball. “He had 44 possessions in the grand final.
“How do we replace that? We probably can’t.”
