Deer Park coach Jamie Madigan on his side’s EDFL season

Deer Park spoiled Airport West’s form with an exciting performance. Coach Jamie Madigan touches on stopping the stars who had 100 touches last week and gives a verdict of his side’s season.

Jake Mckenzie played a key role. Picture: Andrew Batsch

There’s a strong sense of optimism around Deer Park and rightfully so.

The Lions got the better of a red hot Airport West on Saturday, are enjoying a solid debut season in EDFL Premier Division and have plans to go bigger and better in 2025.

Jamie Madigan’s side ran out 14.8 (92) to 12.8 (80) winners over an Eagles’ side who were the toast of the competition last week after ending Keilor’s unbeaten run.

Stopping Eagles guns Matt Hanson and Tyson Young who combined for over 100 disposals in the previous game was key.

“Jake McKenzie went to Young and Jack Grogan went to Hanson, they were both enormous,” Madigan said.

“We know how classy those boys are, they’re the clearance kings for the season. We made a real focus on trying to limit their impact.

“Late in the game, we swung Jacob Knight forward, from a halfback and wing position, to add another tall. Ironically, he kicked two late goals with opportunistic snaps when we were hoping he’d give us something as another lead up forward.”

Deer Park currently sits seventh on the ladder with a 6-11 record heading into the final round of the season.

Madigan said it was “two short” of where he thought his side should be with the Lions set to start favourites against Avondale Heights next week.

“We’re a little behind where we aimed to be at the start of the year, we aimed to be in and around the top-five,” he said.

Deer Park coach Jamie Madigan. Picture: Andrew Batsch

“We’ve been in every game except for a couple. But from our point of view, the club is in a really good position. This season was all about consolidating.

“It’s a big step up from Division 1. We lost 10 players from our premiership team, eight of those are one-pointers and you can’t just replace them with someone else.”

Heading into the off-season, Madigan said there was a clear path forward for the Lions who are already “actively recruiting”.

“We want to bring our one-pointers back,” he said.

“We’ll drop 11 points from Saturday’s team so that already gives us some wiggle room.”

Meanwhile, Footscray VFL captain Josh Chatfield made his VFL debut against Airport West with Madigan pleased with his performance.

“A really polished player,” he said.

“Coming off a knee injury, he’s missed three or four months, he played across halfback.”

The only downside to Deer Park’s win came after Shannon Byrnes “tweaked an ankle”.