WHEN any team starts the new season with 2-4 record, most people within the footy sphere would be reaching for the marker and lightly, just lightly, putting an ‘x’ against that team’s finals chances.
That thought might potentially have been running through Lalor coach Steve Marshall’s mind following four straight losses through rounds 3-6, including a 59-point hammering to the previously winless Diamond Creek in Round 6.
Having just stepped into the senior coach’s seat, Marshall would have been forgiven for lamenting his side’s slow start to the year in his debut coaching season.
After six rounds, it would be fair to assume that he didn’t dream his side would be preparing to enter the business end of the season in fourth place, some three games clear of fifth position.
But that’s exactly where Lalor finds itself after 11 rounds of the 2014 Division 2 season, following a gutsy 25-point home win over Diamond Creek on Saturday.
“I think it’s taken a while for the team to adjust to the new game plan from previous seasons,” Marshall said to NFL.org.au.
“Now that it’s slowly starting to work the results are starting to improve.
“Our hard work on the training track has also paid off.”
The Bloods have won four of their past five games – including a 17-point away win against third-placed Mernda in Round 10 – and are now looking the goods to play finals football for the first time since 2011, when Marshall was still captain of the club.
Given Lalor’s huge turn around in form since Round 6, it would be safe to assume that a handful of the club’s best players had taken control of the group out on the park.
But that’s not the case at Lalor.
“It’s been a team effort,” Marshall stressed.
“When we are playing our best footy it’s really hard to find one stand out player.
“I have really been impressed by our younger players so far this season. We have brought up a lot of under-19s and they have fitted straight into senior football which is encouraging for the future of the club.
“Yeah it was a tough start but we knew if we stuck to our guns and continued to work hard that things would turn around.
“I think the boys have learned to have a belief in each other.”
With the club sitting nicely poised in fourth place, you would forgive Marshall for maybe casting a little eye on the net that is finals.
His side has a three-game buffer over fifth-placed Epping, and is playing some amazing footy ahead of a Round 12 clash with seventh-placed Panton Hill.
But don’t mention that big word ‘finals’ to Marshall just yet.
“As much as it’s a cliché, at the moment we are taking it week by week,” he said.
“Finals are definitely something we are aiming for but we will cross that bridge if or hopefully when we get there.
“We are hoping to win the next two games (against Panton Hill and Hurstbridge). It’s a pretty even comp and any team can win on their given day so we know that we have to continue to play our best football to get the four points.
“If we do manage to win it’s just another step forward to our next goal.”
