By Matt Fotia
Lilydale will continue to build from within according to their senior coach Ben Neagle as the Falcons prepare for their next Division One campaign – whenever that may be.
The Falcons are coming off the back of three straight finals appearances in the EFNL’s second division, after its 2015 relegation from the top flight.
Early in 2019 it looked like the boys in Blue and Gold would be a strong chance of re-entering the pinnacle of metropolitan football when they won their first five matches against some quality opposition.
But a 6-9 record in the following 15 games – including a straight sets exit from finals – left the Falcons stranded in Division One once again.
Senior Coach Ben Neagle is not one for excuses, willing to admit his side was outplayed by both Croydon and Park Orchards come September, but does wonder what could’ve been.
“We had a terrific start to the season but it got a bit long in the tooth for us (the year) and when you’re playing in finals you need to have everything going your way and we just didn’t,”
“Croydon were terrific in that first final against us in the dying minutes and we sustained four injuries across the four quarters, so heading into the Park Orchards game – where they smashed us from the outset – we were out of gas with eight or nine of our best 22 missing.”
The Lilydale list will have a new look to it in 2020 (or 2021) whether those missing players return from injury or not, with a host of players heading for the exit door, with consistent senior names such as Brad Lowe (QLD), Trent Elliot (Warburton Millgrove), Lachlan Koger (Coldstream) and Ashraf Davies (Mansfield) looking to play their football elsewhere.
Neagle isn’t too worried though, with the Falcons notorious attitude for blooding young talent leaving the club with plenty of depth.
“We’ve prided ourselves on keeping the group together over the last three to four years, but there has been a little bit of movement with guys looking for a change of scenery or alike,”
“But the best thing about our group is the depth we have through the club, we had a really strong under 19 group last year and four or five of those guys played senior football last year and we were/are really excited about the group we had ready to go into the season with.”
Neagle, who played in the clubs last premiership back in 2011, also said the Falcons were in a good spot for the long term future.
“We’re in a good pretty spot, certainly off-field, in the last five years the club has worked so hard to get ourselves into a good position not just financially but also around our committee,”
“On field we are always producing good kids through out junior program and we’ll keep trying to push them through to the senior ranks.”
In the meantime all he, his coaching staff and the committee can do is make sure the football club’s members remain healthy throughout the COVID-19 lockdown.
“We gave them (the players) a few weeks where we wanted them not to think about football and just focus on staying healthy, but recently our fitness coach Erica has implementing a few fitness programs for them and using social media to keep connected like everyone else,”
“We want to make sure everyone comes out the other side of this mentally and physically in good shape, which means footy is secondary at the moment.”