By LIAM TWOMEY
IT WAS an historic day for the Western Region Football League on Saturday with both Manor Lakes and Sanctuary Lakes taking to the field for the first time. The two clubs were formed during the off-season with months of planning and hard work coming to the fore during round one.
It was a dream debut for Manor Lakes, with its first game taking place under lights against Laverton.
The Storm quickly set aside any pre-game nerves, marching to a 29 point lead at quarter time and never looking back.
Manor Lakes coach Heath Hunter booted four goals in the dominating performance as his side crushed Laverton by 108 points.
Club president Gary Sheppard said it was a brilliant start to the season.
“We weren’t expecting it,” Sheppard said.
“We had our own KPI’s (key performance indicators) in house that we wanted to reach. We were just blown away by the result which was awesome for the football club.
“The day has been coming for a long time and it turned out to be the perfect day weather wise and the crowd and everything went off really well.
“It was a long time in the making but certainly well worth it in the end and a great reward from a lot of work from a lot of people.”
The result wasn’t quite as good for Sanctuary Lakes with the Sharks running into a fired up Sunshine Heights.
Sanctuary Lakes found life tough going early in the contest, kicking just one goal in the first half as the margin blew out to 46 points.
It was a much better effort in the second half with the Sharks booting six goals.
Despite the fight back, Sunshine went on to win by 70 points.
Sanctuary Lakes president Paul Tyres said there were huge positives to take out of the match for his club.
“It has been a pretty intensive five months and yesterday was actually five months to the day since the club was formed,” he said.
“There has been a hell of a lot of hard work. As far as on field went … while the scoreboard might not reflect what most clubs consider to be a successful day, I think we still consider it exactly that. We have two teams with a lot of young blokes, I think the average age is about 19 or 20.
“Sunshine Heights coming back to Division Two, I think they have recruited well over the summer and I think they will be a lot better than what people thought prior to the season starting.”
Round two begins on Saturday with Manor Lakes set to take on North Sunshine while Sanctuary Lakes will take on Albanvale.
The WRFL’s two newest clubs will play against each other in round three.
