Lamprill’s Lions primed
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 AFTER cutting a path of destruction through its SFL opposition over the past two months, Huonville coach Billy Lamprill has finally admitted his Lions “might” be the competition’s in-form team heading into today’s grand final against Lindisfarne at North Hobart Oval.
The Lions lost only one game since Lamprill took over as coach in May, and in their two finals beat Lindisfarne in an extra-time thriller at Anzac Park and rolled Dodges Ferry at Shark Park.
After a week off as the first team into the grand final, Lamprill said Huonville had not achieved anything.
“We might be the most inform team, but at the end of the day, you’re there but if you don’t get the job done it doesn’t count for much,” he said.
“Our focus is to play well and get the job done and that’s what we’ll be planning to do.
“We are well prepared, the boys have trained really well, and they are ready to go.”
The Lions used the week off to recharge after two tough finals.
“The boys deserved the week off after the way they have played,” Lamprill said.
“We have freshened up, and worked on some things that we needed to execute better and I think we are cherry ripe and ready to go.”
Lindisfarne coach Daniel Willing said they were two evenly matched sides.
“Both have great midfields, great forward lines and hardworking defensive ends, so whatever happens it’s going to be a pretty close game,” Willing said.
Lindisfarne learned from its drawn game with Huonville in the qualifying final that went on to be won by the Lions in extra time. “We were five goals up in the third quarter and we were really poor in the last quarter and extra time — we threw it away,” Willing said.
“But what we took out of that is our best footy is good enough.
“And also the fact that we’ve been able to play an extra couple of games has been really beneficial because we had some players who needed that continuity.
“They got extra games, we got match fitness, so as much as we were disappointed with the qualifying final, to get that extra couple of games has worked in our favour.”