By ADEM SARICAOGLU
WITH nearby clubs Hillside and Deer Park publicly going out of their way to recruit the big names for 2013, Taylors Lakes have managed to fly well under the radar this summer.
While the Lions have gained the services of talented midfielder Adem Asani from East Keilor, coach Steve Burns says his club is happy to let neighbouring rivals have the pre-season limelight.
“We’ve been pretty quiet,” Burns said.
“There’s not a lot said about us on forums and social media or anything like that, we’re trying to keep it to ourselves.
“I suppose we tend to try and fly under the radar, but everyone expects us to be pretty reasonable (on the field), too.”
Taylors Lakes was competitive during its 2012 campaign in the EDFL’s Division One competition, finishing fourth and reaching a preliminary final against eventual premier Airport West.
Burns believes his side is well-poised for a serious tilt at the flag this season, but says he will back his own young midfield to improve instead of throwing money at bigger names.
“We had words between the football department and the footy club this year just trying to work out what the budget was going to be and there was talk of dropping our budget right down, which we haven’t,” he said.
“We dropped it but not right down, and we stuck to our guns and hopefully that pays through for us.
“It’s really tough at the moment to compete with a lot of clubs and Deer Park’s the one in the WRFL that has gone crazy.”
The Lions are still in the market for a tall key position player, but Burns says his club is still a way off from making anything official.
“We’re pretty aggressive, it’s just we’re basically only looking for talls,” he said.
“We’re pretty happy with our midfield and all our runners and everyone’s pretty much looking for talls.
“We’re up against all the A-Grade clubs and the VFL clubs and everyone else to get them.”
Asani, who is currently training with VFL club Werribee, will slot straight into the void left by midfielder Marc Dawson, who chose to return to WRFL club St Albans.
“He’s a midfielder (and) half back, very stocky (and) well-built,” Burns said of Asani.
“As I said we’re not really going out of our way looking for midfielders but he came across our path and he’s just exactly what we’re looking for to add to the mix.
“Obviously we lost Marc Dawson who was a midfielder, so he’s covered him basically.
“He’s going to be super handy for us.”
