By LIAM TWOMEY
IF IT wasn’t for Ashton Agar, Manor Lakes Football Club could lay claim to making the sporting debut of the year.
The Storm stunned the Western Region Football League throughout a brilliant inaugural season which saw the newly-formed club narrowly defeated in a preliminary final.
Manor Lakes president Gary Sheppard had no hesitation giving the year his tick of approval.
“It was definitely a successful year for the club, on-field and off-field as well,” he said.
“We have got a fantastic culture and some great junior sides coming through. Of course our seniors getting as far as they did was a real bonus and it is a credit to them and the coaches to be able to get us into finals in our first year.”
With awards season about to enter full swing, the Storm has already been acknowledged with five players named in the division two team of the year.
Hayden Templeton, Frank Pavez, Ty Priest, Charles Hunter and Andrew Heyde were also joined by Heath Hunter who was named Coach of the Year.
However, there is no chance of complacency creeping in at Howqua Road Reserve with Sheppard saying the club is keen to beef up its coaching panel as well as adding a couple of key players in the off-season.
“We want to expand on our coaching panel and make sure that Heath has got all the back-up he needs with coaches and assistant coaches and that type of thing,” he said.
“I think we certainly need a couple more on-ballers so we can do some heavy rotations and give our key players a bit of a spell.
“That is probably what we learnt from Glen Orden. They could run eight or so through their midfield whereas we were lacking a couple of key midfielders who could do the rotations.”
With year one now in the history books, Sheppard also had some advice for the WRFL’s newest club, Tarneit.
The Titans will field senior and junior teams in the competition from 2014.
“Just make sure you get all your structures in place and have good people around you,” he said.
“We are proud of our culture that we have built around the footy club. We have had no problems all year and we went into this season really strong on that. We wanted to build it from the beginning and that is what we have done.”
