Lions not feeling heat
INJURED East Belmont skipper Sean O’Neill insists there is no extra pressure on his side as it strives for a three-peat of GCA1 premierships.
As the Lions embark on a new season with a host of selection issues ahead of Round 1, O’Neill remains confident the external pressure won’t impact his team.
“I don’t think so, and that comes from the regeneration that we’ve had internally,” O’Neill said.
“We’ve lost Alex (Willerton) and I won’t be there for half a season, but there’s a few blokes in our twos who are pushing hard to get in the ones.
“And with the competition itself, you are playing against different players each season with retirements and players stepping back to lower grades, so from my perspective we don’t feel any additional pressure to win it.
“We put some pressure on ourselves to perform because we want to play good cricket, but I know I haven’t (felt any extra pressure). “From a club point of view, we haven’t talked about going after a third premiership. We’ve talked about winning enough games to play finals. “That’s held us in good stead consistently in my time at East Belmont.” English import Willerton, who played a pivotal role in back-to-back grand final wins, won’t return to Winter Reserve this season. O’Neill is out until after Christmas with a wrist injury, while twins Dylan and Hayden McMahon could have a delayed start to the season after enjoying the spoils of a senior footy premiership with GFL club St Mary’s.
Coach Chris Williams is also overseas and will miss the season opener, with Hayden McMahon set to take the captaincy if he is ready to play.
If Hayden McMahon is unavailable, Matt Lineker will take charge of a side that will be without at least four premiership players to start the season.
“It shouldn’t impact us too much,” O’Neill stressed.
“We’ve been able to manage it pretty well over the last few years. We’ve still got a few balls in the air in terms of selection, though.
“We’re just not 100 per cent sure where everyone is at, and we’re pretty mindful that most of the boys play footy — that’s their dominant sport — and we want to give them as much time as we can to get back in the fold.
“At the same time, we’ve got some keen blokes who don’t play footy who want their spots, so we’ve got some decisions to make.”
Recruit Jack Jenkins returns to GCA1, having crossed from St Peter’s where he played top-flight cricket in 2016-17. The strongly built paceman shapes as the ideal replacement for Willerton, who led the attack alongside David Lineen for the past two seasons. “Alex, as a player, is irreplaceable,” O’Neill said.
“If you take a player of his quality out of any team, it’s not going to help. Unless you get a bloke fresh out of district cricket that bowls 140km/h and is scaring blokes, it’s not going to happen.
“But at the same time, we’ve played plenty of games without him over the years and we still managed to get ourselves in a position to contend.
“We’ve just got to spread the load amongst our bowlers. Dave Lineen is fit, firing and ready to go and he’ll continue on and people forget that Dylan and Charlie (Walter) are pretty young.
“Charlie is still playing in the under-19s colts (footy), Dylan is only 23 and we’re hoping to get Zach Walter in the fray as well.”