SFNL: East Brighton forward Tom Lamb has added to his already scorching season

While Tom Lamb is giving defenders a hard time playing deep forward, East Brighton coach Nick Jewell isn’t afraid to execute his original plan come the second half of the year.

Tom Lamb

Deep defenders may be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Despite the scorching form of East Brighton’s boom recruit Tom Lamb, Vampires coach Nick Jewell said his original plan isn’t off the table.

Jewell planned to hold the former West Coast Eagles’ magnet inside 50 to develop his fitness ahead of a shift further up the ground in the second half of the year.

And while Lamb has taken the opportunity with both hands – booting 43 majors in just eight games, including 13 in Saturday’s match against Black Rock – Jewell isn’t ruling out the first approach.

“He hadn’t played footy for three years, so we thought we’d ease him back into playing footy and look after his body,” he said.

“We settled him in, it wasn’t necessarily going to be the goal square, it was meant to be the forward 50 but he’s going down to the square mainly.

“Him and (Nick) Corp chop and change, sometimes he rolls a bit higher.

“The plan was to start to roll him up through the wing and half-forward in the second half of the year as well once he has had a handful of games under his belt – we will have to see how that unfolds after the bye.

“I think our strength has been we have Tyrren Head go forward and kick goals, Ryan Semmel kicks goals when he’s forward; when it’s not working with the bigs we can push them up higher and play the midfielders out of the square and they can hit the scoreboard.

“I think that’s the beauty of having Tom there, he can play both roles.

“We’re planning on going deep into finals, you never know, it might be a wet, shitty day in a semi-final, and you need to find another avenue to goal – we’re having a look at all those options.”

Tom Lamb.

With 43 goals in only eight matches, Lamb is on a path towards an enormous season.

However, Jewell confirmed Lamb is interested in just enjoying his footy and would avoid the spotlight of a season that could give 100 majors a nudge.

“He’s still a young man, he is still 24 or 25 and has had a long time out of the game – he’s fit and healthy physically and mentally, out playing golf every Sunday morning as recovery,” he said.

“He’s too good of a talent to not be playing sport and more importantly the young fella is enjoying life.

“He’s got a laconic way about him, but the most important thing is he is back smiling and enjoying sport.

“He wouldn’t want that (100-goal hype), Tommy, he doesn’t want much hype or any media, I think he cares more about his 8:30am tee off.”

The Vampires won the match 29.20 (194) to 1.7 (13).

Elsewhere, East Malvern recorded a fantastic win over Murrumbeena, 15.8 (98) to 6.8 (44).

Caulfield Bears snapped its three-game losing streak with a 11.6 (72) to 8.14 (62) win over HamptonPark.

Highett overcame a plucky Skye (11.12 (78) to 10.9 (69) and Doveton Doves continued its delightful form with a 12.15 (87) to 7.13 (55) win over Keysborough.