It’s a living one for Harley Taylor-Lloyd at Nagambie.
Heading into his second year at the helm of the Lakers, however, Taylor-Lloyd is taking it all in his stride.
Having inherited a side that finished runner-up in 2023, the first-year coach steered his troops to a semi-final in 2024, winning eight of the last 12 home-and-away games to make it to the finals following a 2-2 start to the year.
“It was very satisfying in the end. We had a very up and down year, we had no real commitment at the start of the year,” Taylor-Lloyd said.
“We had a lot of lot of suspensions and injuries from the grand final (the year) previously, so to get to where we got to, I was very proud of the group.
“A lot wouldn’t have expected it. I think around three weeks out from the end we were eighth or seventh and I think we ended up finishing fifth, and obviously we beat Avenel in that first (final), which was pretty huge.
“That was probably a tick really in the end. Obviously coming off a grand final loss hurts. We just really didn’t have that commitment and drive from the start, we were always on the back foot.”
Two players who played a massive role in helping the Lakers turn their fortunes around in the second half of the season were Rielly Old and Blake Fothergill, who caught the eye of the umpires and each earned 22 votes to win the McNamara Medal in a three-way tie alongside Murchison-Toolamba onballer James Milne.
But the lure of Goulburn Valley League football has proven too strong, with both of those players taking up opportunities at Seymour and Shepparton United, respectively, with a few other integral squad members also taking on the challenge at GVL clubs.
“We lose those two (Old and Fothergill), we lose Jono Moore, who’s gone to Shepp Swans, and we also lose Nick Asquith to Euroa, but I think most importantly (to) on-field leadership we lose Nathan Fothergill, who’s joined the firies,” Taylor-Lloyd said of the departing talent.
“So we lose five of the, you know, first 12 picked people. I think the only way that I've been able to try and work around it is we just need to build the depth. We need to be always ready, we need to have that next bloke ready.
“The midfield was our strength last year, but I think we can bat a bit deeper now. Realistically, I think we can probably put eight people through there now, where last year we might have only had, say, four or five.
“We’re not going to be as flashy and, you know, we’re going to obviously miss Rielly and Blake, but we’ve got to bat a lot deeper through there now and we’re going to have a bit more option and we’re going to have few more tricks up our sleeve now with who we can put in there.”
The forward line is also going to have somewhat of a new look, with players returning from injury and stints away from the club to help kick a winning score.
The 2023 best-and-fairest Tom Barnes will once again pull on the Lakers jumper following an injury-riddled 2024, which was also the case with 2023 leading goal-kicker Will Dalton, while small forward Blake Laverie returns after a year away from the club and centre half-forward Lucas McKinnon joins from VAFA side Therry Penola.
All of those inclusions inside the forward 50 should help address what the club thinks is the gap between themselves and the top couple of sides in the competition — getting goals on the board.
“The stats don't lie. We lost to Murch the second-last game of the year by five points. We beat ‘Lanky’ (Lancaster) the week before that, we just couldn’t kick goals,” Taylor-Lloyd said.
“We were getting it in there, we had immense talent in the midfield, we had one of the best ruckmen in the comp, we just couldn’t kick a score.
“We’d have days where we’d kick seven, eight goals against a good team in a quarter, other days we'd kick bloody two goals in a half.”
With more recruits to come, Taylor-Lloyd is bullish about the side’s prospects of returning to the level it showed in 2023.
But to do so, a good start which sets the standard for the entire playing group is necessary, and it’s exactly the message the coach has been driving all pre-season.
“I just think this first month is huge. If we can be 4-0 that just sets us up,” he said.
“Last year we were two and two, we had two floggings from Murch and Lanky. You can’t really attract blokes who haven’t been playing footy when you’re two and two.
“It’s completely different when you’re 4-0, numbers pick up at training and the twos are going all right, everything just lifts, where last year we were on the back foot straight away.”
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