TAYLORS Lakes reverted to its characteristic “down and dirty” footy to upend Westmeadows by 29 points at Lionheart Reserve on Saturday and get its Essendon District Football League division 1 campaign rolling again.
The Lions have been disappointing in the opening month with coach Steve Burns telling the Weekly that his side has at times shirked the contested-ball situation.
“It’s pretty disappointing what we’ve dished up so far this year. We’ve been struggling to put a finger on it [poor form] but it’s probably been the contested footy.
“We just haven’t been good at it this season and traditionally what Taylors Lakes has been good at is contested footy, playing the one-percenters and tackling and all that kind of stuff.
“Today we turned it around. We were good on the contested ball, we had 91 tackles and got down and dirty, which is Taylors Lakes footy pretty much.”
The Lions opened up a three-goal break by half-time, despite woeful inaccuracy, which saw them turn just 10 of 28 scoring shots into goals.
The lead at the long break was a telling one in a low-scoring affair as the Lions restricted the Tigers to just six goals for the day.
Lions’ first gamer Anthony Younan was the most reliable avenue to goal with three majors.
“Anthony’s been trying for a long time to get a game in the ones and got his chance today,” Burns said.
“He played with a lot of spirit and gave us a big spark.”
The Lions welcomed back spiritual leader Mark De Sousa after a two-week vacation.
The two-time competition best-and-fairest and five-time club champion adjusted to the pace of the game with ease.
Going a long way to securing a victory for the Lions was the performances of unsung heroes Jackson Wright and Mark Xuereb.
Wright limited the damage of one-time AFL-listed player Balraj Singh and Xuereb kept in-form Nathan Ohlsen relatively quiet.
“It was good to see the young blokes in key positions playing well,” Burns said.
The Lions will visit Hillside Sharks on Saturday in a local derby with a difference. The Sharks have wooed former Carlton superstar Anthony Koutoufides for a guest appearance.
Burns says it is important that his side does not get sucked in to the ‘Kouta’ sideshow and focuses on retaining its flawless record against the neighbouring club.
“It’s going to be tough,” Burns said.
“Hillside come out to play us hard every time and they’ll be thinking this is their best opportunity to beat Taylors Lakes. They’ve got ‘Kouta’ in there as the sideshow and hopefully our boys can stay focused and worry about winning their own footy and not worry about him too much.”
Division 1
Taylors Lakes 10.18 (78) d Westmeadows 6.13 (49); Glenroy 44.16 (280) d Keilor Park 6.7 (43); West Coburg 19.16 (130) d Hillside 7.7 (49)
