Weekly Times | BELMONT Lions’ golden anniversary year is also hoped to be a drought breaking one.
The Lions are fighting for their first finals berth since 2007, the club’s one and only senior premiership year in the Geelong and District Football League.
They have not finished higher than seventh since, including wooden spoons in 2010 and 2013.
David McKiernan joined as coach last year, and the Lions last week announced his contract had been extended the end of next season.
Belmont Lions won seven of its last eight games, after a 1-9 start in the first 10 rounds, to finish eighth last season, and were fifth at 6-4 heading into yesterday’s Round 11 match against reigning premier Bell Post Hill.
The Panthers won 15.15 (105) to 10.13 (73).
McKiernan said it would be disappointing to miss out on a top-five spot this year, but the club and players had taken huge steps forward regardless.
“Finals will show where we are as a team and what we need to do to improve, but at the same time I don’t think it will show how far the people in the club have come and what we’ve been able to do to turn around the culture and the ability to learn how to win,” he said.
Club president Scott Fort’s eagerness to utilise the talent arriving at the local Deakin University campus has borne fruit in recruits such as Xavier Lourey, a former Geelong Falcon from Terang Mortlake in the Hampden league.
The club also recruited Ben Vardy, brother of Geelong Cats footballer Nathan, this season from Toora in the Alberton league.
“We take one week at a time, but with the young group we’ve got we’ve got to make sure they stay focused and doing the job at hand rather than worrying about what might happen in eight weeks’ time,” McKiernan said.
