Laurimar coach Jimmy Atkins confident his side can bounce back in 2023
Laurimar coach Jimmy Atkins doesn’t subscribe to the “got to lose one to win one” theory but has no doubt his team will be back in premiership contention in 2023.
Northern
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Laurimar coach Jimmy Atkins has no doubt his team will be back competing for a NFL Division 3 premiership in 2023.
The Power fell just short of the flag on Saturday, going down to South Morang by 15 points at Whittlesea Showgrounds.
It was the club’s first senior grand final having only entered the Northern Football League in 2017.
Speaking after the 13.10 (88) to 11.7 (73) defeat, Atkins was confident his team would be back.
“It’s disappointing and upsetting but we had a good year, we just didn’t get the job done on the last day,” he said.
“I thought we started well but you drop off 10 per cent against any of the top four, especially Morang, you lose yourself the game of footy.
“We’re obviously a new club and we’re young and we all want to stick together and have another crack at it.
“I’m doing it again and I can’t wait.
“We’re a young group, we’ve got everyone signed up ready to go and the club really wants to go somewhere, they’re driven, so I’m confident we’ll get back here.”
Laurimar started brightly on the back of two first-quarter goals from Jacson Cecil.
However, South Morang took control through the second and third quarters to set up the game and despite kicking the final two goals of the third, the Power couldn’t mount a comeback.
Young ruckman Ethan Bateman was a standout best-on-ground, as influential as Lions’ grand final medallist James Hewson, winning a number of hitouts and taking several telling marks around the ground.
Atkins had only praise for his big man.
“I thought Ethan Bateman was the most influential player on the ground,” he said.
“Luke Wilson was good, Nathan Andrews was really good too, we had some good players but we didn’t all come today.
Cecil finished with four goals, arguably his best performance against a top-four team this season.
The key forward claimed the competition goalkicking award with 84 majors and finished with 89 in total.
At just 18, Joel Lawson finished the season with 32 goals.
The Laurimar club best-and-fairest will be hotly contested with the likes of boom recruit Nathan Andrews, Luke Wilson, Jake Richards and Kaiden Arthur all strong contenders.
Wilson was superb in the grand final defeat, prolific in midfield, capping off an impressive finals campaign.
It’s been a steady progression for a club that was admitted into NFL Division 3 in 2017.
Laurimar played finals for the first time in 2018, earned a double chance in 2019 but failed to win a final, bundled out in the preliminary final by South Morang.
The Power claimed their first finals this season with a win over the Lions in the qualifying final to progress straight through to the grand final.
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They will hope to replicate Panton Hill and South Morang’s premiership success, the year after losing the grand final in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
“I don’t believe (you’ve got to lose one to win one) and I’m confident this group can get us back,” Atkins said.
“They’re very tight and a pleasure to coach.
“We’ll have a bit of a break and celebrate the year and go from there.”
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