No ceiling for Bloods


Published on Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Author : James Strebinos

New senior coach Gary Cutler says a finals berth is not out of the equation for Lalor in season 2019.

The Bloods recorded just two wins during a difficult 2018 campaign, but Cutler is optimistic ahead of the club’s second season in Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3.

“I always find it hard to put a ceiling on things. We are aiming to improve and to be thereabouts,” Cutler told NFNL.org.au.

“With natural progression in everybody means it’s not unrealistic for us to be aiming for finals.

“With St Mary’s going up a division and no one coming down, I feel like there’s a spot up for grabs and there’s no reason why we can’t fight for it.”

The 2018 campaign was a tough one for Lalor. Upon request, the Bloods were demoted to Division 3 in February following a large player exodus.

They finished the season just one spot off the bottom of the ladder, with their two victories both coming against bottom-placed Reservoir.

Cutler, who coached Division 3 opponent Heidelberg West for the past two years, has now taken over the coaching reins from Dean Grainger.

The new mentor believes morale around the club remains high and said it’s the new recruits that thrill him most ahead of the 2019 campaign.

“We have had an influx of new players, including a Division 1 senior premiership midfielder in Josh Novelli and he has really set the standards at training so far,” Cutler said.

“We also added a proven goal kicker from Wallan in Sam Rexhepi.”

Novelli booted 17 goals during West Preston-Lakeside’s 2018 premiership campaign and featured in the nine-point grand final win over Macleod.

Rexhepi kicked 173 goals over the past five seasons in the Riddell District Football League and fills a major void inside 50 for the Bloods – whose leading goal kicker in 2018 was Daniel Moore with just 13 majors.

Other recruits include former Frankston VFL big man Adam Lourey, former Coburg Districts captain Stephen Wallace, Heidelberg West youngster Jacob Duson, North Sunshine’s Adem Bektash and West Australian Matthew Whittaker, however reigning best and fairest Isaac Edgar won’t play in 2019.

Cutler said the club had opted to keep relatively the same leadership group in 2019, with Jackson Freebairn to remain captain, assisted by vice-captains Alex Dao, Jake Langborne and Tim Murphy.

“We didn’t touch our leadership group the first couple of weeks of pre-season just so we could see what we had and who was stepping up,” Cutler said.

“In the end, we didn’t need to change anything because it was our existing leadership group that was setting the standards.

“Their appetite for hard work has been immense and it was an easy decision in the end.

“(Murphy) is the one that has really impressed so far. We have just added him to the leadership group because of the way he’s been training.

“He’d be in the top five most fit blokes at the club and he only played a couple of games last year but he’ll be ready to take that next step this year.”

Lalor has a bye in Round 1 and will open its 2019 campaign with a home game against Laurimar at Lalor Reserve on April 13.

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