Lions endure tough start to 2025 campaign

It was a promising first term from Seymour, who had four scoring shots to three in the opening quarter, but despite goals to Oliver Munro and recruit Tom Jeffrey, trailed 2.2 (14) to 3.0 (18) at the first break.

But as coach Ben Davey explained, the Lions were unable to replicate that first quarter effort in the second, with Rochester showing the sort of form that has them in the conversation as contenders this year, booting seven goals to one and blowing the contest wide open.

“It was a bit strange because the first quarter was alright, it was competitive,” he said.

“We weren't in the lead, but we didn't get smashed and we had plenty of the ball. The second quarter was a real surprise.

“We fell into maybe worrying about ourselves a bit more than worrying about what we needed to do as a team, and Rochester played really well in that quarter, everything went perfect for them and everything went bad for us, and before you knew it (they had established the lead).

“That quarter went for 35 minutes and it was really hard to get any momentum in the game, they just controlled the ball the whole time, we didn't have a lot of the footy, and it was one of those ones where with a young group, a new group all in together, we just weren't able to pull it up.

“(The players) were super disappointed with their effort and the way things panned out, which was totally understandable, so they didn't need me yelling and screaming at them because they already knew themselves that they'd let themselves and the team down, so it was a tough day.”

Facing a 42-point deficit at half time, the Lions were unable to turn things around in the second half either as Rochester continued to dominate the contest, slamming through another four majors while the Lions were kept to just two behinds as the margin crept beyond 10 goals.

The game had been well and truly put to bed by the last quarter, with the Tigers again outscoring Seymour four goals to two en route to the victory.

There were plenty of moments from the Lions however, who fielded seven players making their senior debut for the club, and given the sheer number of new personnel pulling on the jumper, Davey expects the performances to improve with time.

“That's definitely what will happen, and only time and experience playing with each other can bring that,” he said.

“You spend a preseason together and you think you've got it, but then it comes to game day and it's a completely different ball game.

“And probably our preparation over the last couple of weeks has been really tough, we trained on our ground twice in the preseason, so that's been really tough... but as you say, only time will fix it.

“There's no way that I'd expect the same type of performance this week, I can seriously see all the guys were that disappointed that they'll be desperate to try and turn around what happened on the weekend.”

A number of new recruits showed glimpses of potential in the defeat, with Lachy Giles joining Jeffrey among the goals, while Lucas Cavigan made a solid impression having moved up from the under-18’s, slotting a major to be included in the best alongside off-season addition Lachy Beattie.

Nic Quigg showed his class at times against a tough Tigers on-ball brigade, as did co-coach Jack Murphy, with the pair named among Seymour’s better performers, as was Dylan Cook, who makes his return to the senior line up after a number of injury-interrupted years.

Looking ahead to the Lions round two clash against Shepparton Swans, their first home game of the season, Davey said there was one clear area in which he was looking for improvement upon the weekend’s performance.

“Definitely we want to see a more consistent effort over the four quarters,” he said.

“We don't need to see anyone all of a sudden being the best player on the ground, we just need to see everyone playing their role and doing their bit around the ground.

“It's not a thing where we need amazing players, we're not that far off, if everyone just plays their role then the improvement will come really quickly.”