Recruits add pace to Tigers
LABRADOR QAFL coach Liam Burke believes a host of recruits and returning talent will help the club close the gap on the league’s best next year.
Burke will enter his second year in charge of the Tigers senior men’s team in 2020 after helping to slightly improve the side’s performances in the 2019 season.
Labrador won two extra games than 2018 but missed out on a spot in the finals by four points, finishing seventh with six wins and 10 losses.
Burke said he had identified the holes in the list and sought out players who could add pace and class to the group.
He believes he has found it in recruits Tom Donoghue, Matt Lee, Bronson Schofield and Shylo Smith.
“A clear gap in our list during the 2019 season was pace and class,” Burke said. “We were often outrun and lacked depth through the midfield.
“We also lacked players that could rebound the footy from defensive 50m and enter our forward 50m with purpose.
“We targeted midfielders over the summer and are impressed with the players coming in and also returning. We now feel that we have a good mix of experience and youth.”
Donoghue and Smith have come from Western Region Football League team St Albans in Victoria, Lee hails from Upper Ferntree Gully, an Eastern
Football League in the same state and Lee has shifted from Ovens & Murray Football League club Yarrawonga.
Burke said Lee was a classy goalkicking midfielder who can play at half-forward, Donoghue a clearance specialist in the midfield, Schofield a hard running player with pace to burn and Smith was a strongbodied midfielder.
Smith will arrive at the club early next year while the others are already on deck and training with the club.
Joining the group will be returning Tigers Adam Clarke, a midfield-forward and former Labrador best and fairest winner who has won two premierships, and Mickey Abbey, who is also a premiership-winning pressure forward and midfielder.
Key personnel Billy Hicks, Jake Goldsmith and Dylan MacCombie are also expected to be available after being sidelined with knee injuries in 2019.