By DAVID NAGEL
IT’S rather ironic that Pakenham – despite losing 200 centimetres and 118 kilograms from the ruck- promises to be bigger and stronger when it runs out for its Round 1 clash against Hampton Park on April 11.
The loss of giant-sized interleague ruckman Kym Jones will no doubt hurt the Lions this season, but coach Steve O’Bryan is banking on stronger bodies to lift his side from its elimination final loss to Berwick last year.
“When we sat back and compared ourselves to Beaconsfield, Berwick, Cranbourne and Narre Warren it became clear that they had much bigger bodies than us,” O’Bryan said.
“We identified it early as a deficiency and the boys have really worked hard in the gym to get stronger.”
Notably stronger at training on Monday night were youngsters Sam Blackwood, Jack Melbourne and Brad Cavalot, while best and fairest placegetter Troy Toussaint and livewire half-forward Jake Barclay are reported to be significantly bigger than last year.
But it’s another youngster, Jarrad Cavalot that will quite literally have the biggest shoes to fill as he takes over the number one ruck mantle from Jones.
“Yeah, look, it’s a bit of a flattener to lose Kimbo, but Jarrad showed some really promising signs last year,” O’Bryan said.
“He’ll have a lot of weight on his shoulders but, apart from Scotty Meyer at Beaconsfield, I don’t think there are too many ruckman crucial to success in this league.”
O’Bryan is confident his sides improved strength, both physically and mentally, will complement its powerful running game.
“I think our running game is a massive strength and can make us one of the best sides in the competition,” he said.
“We’ll still be young, there’s no doubt about that, but we had some good results last year that has built our belief that we can beat anyone.
“We’re a bit more mature, a bit more experienced and mentally I think we’re very strong.”
The Lions did beat both grand finalists, Beaconsfield and Cranbourne last year, but losses to those two sides, after leading at three-quarter time, in Rounds 17 and 18, really did take the pep out of their step ahead of a finals campaign. O’Bryan, himself, said he had to bear some of the responsibility for his side’s poor finish to the season.
“I hammered the top-three position into the boys, then we lost that game to Cranbourne, when we could have locked away top three, then lost to Beaconsfield in the last round and we never really recovered,” he said.
“I should have been looking at what was beyond the double-chance, and that’s winning a premiership, that should have been our focus.
“Sure, we want to finish top-three again, but I won’t be drilling it into the players like I did last year, personally I learnt a lot from that experience.”
The Lions welcome back 2013 recruit, Damien Holmes, from Kilcunda-Bass, club stalwart Beau Wheeler returns from Wangaratta, while Alex Johnson, an exciting key-position player from Clayton, will bolster the Lions’ big-man department.
League best-and-fairest winner Dom Paynter is running strongly at training and should return from an ACL injury to his right knee by early July.
Pakenham’s first practice match is against Leongatha at Toomuc Reserve on Saturday March 21.
