Lower Plenty coach Ben Turner has praised his young side after its impressive start to the A Plus Labour Solutions Division 2 season.
The Bears sit in second spot on the ladder after winning their opening three games in a season for the first time since their 2011 premiership campaign.
With wins against Thomastown, Watsonia and Fitzroy Stars by an average margin of 61 points, Turner said he was impressed with the form displayed so far this season.
“It’s a good feeling. We feel as if we have started the season pretty well,” Turner told NFNL.org.au.
“We’ve had our challenges, but we’ve also risen to those and we’ve played some good footy so it’s a nice position to be in.”
Turner believe consistency was a major concern for the Bears last season, with a lack of four-quarter performances costing them a possible grand final spot.
But he believes the first steps to improvement have been demonstrated this season, in particular during last week’s away win over the Fitzroy Stars.
“The game against the Fitzroy Stars was the first four-quarter performance of the year,” Turner said.
“We’ve had patches in play this year where we haven’t got that consistency right, but on the weekend we were able to string four together which is a good sign of things to come.”
Lower Plenty’s versatile forward line has been on song so far this year, with Coaches MVP leader Tom Keys, skipper Patrick Flynn, Thomas Blake and Corey Sleep already combining for 29 goals in just three weeks.
Turner believes the depth of the playing list is allowing the team to create a strong presence inside 50.
“I think it just adds to the unknown nature of our football club as a whole,” he said.
“With Darcy Barden’s unavailability at the moment, it has meant that others have needed to come through and spend some time inside forward 50.
“It’s a nice feeling to know that you have to know that you’ve got players like Keys and Flynn, who spend time in the midfield but can also go forward and have an influence as well.”
Developing junior players was one of Turner’s main goals when he took over the reins at Lower Plenty at the end of last season – particularly after the Bears’ under-19 premiership success last year.
He said nothing had changed on that front.
“Just giving them the opportunity to play was our first priority,” he said.
“They seem to be adapting to the change to senior footy from junior footy well and there’s others that have been giving it a real crack at senior football when given the opportunity.
“It’s still our goal and our emphasis this season to continue to develop the kids and we still have a fair few that are playing in reserves and under-19s.
“We are keen on giving them opportunities as the season progresses.”
After consecutive away games, Lower Plenty is back at home when it takes on third-placed Diamond Creek this Saturday. It is the first meeting for the sides since the 2017 preliminary final, where the Demons prevailed by seven points.
Diamond Creek won all four contests between the two sides last season, but with both sides in strong form heading into the match, Turner is expecting nothing but a close contest.
“I think from the nature of both sides, you’d expect it to be pretty close and you’d expect the game to be pretty high intensity,” Turner said.
“For us it is a great challenge, granted we’re 3-0 at the moment. We’re excited by the opportunity to play against Diamond Creek who are a side that has had our measure comfortably last season.
“We look forward to Saturday’s match and them coming down to our ground to see how we go.”
