VAFA Premier B: Parkdale Vultures staying positive in a testing season
It’s been a tough year for the Vultures but they’re playing the kids and showing improvement for coach Owie Lalor.
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Parkdale Vultures’ season is playing out just as coach Owie Lalor had expected.
It’s a struggle for the Premier B club.
The Vultures are 0-9 with a percentage of 32 and staring at relegation.
And yet Lalor can reel off plenty of positives about his young team, including its improvement, its fight and its unity.
He’s a proud coach.
Last Saturday the Vultures played finals fancy Beaumaris at Gerry Green Reserve, fielding a team containing 17 players with 10 senior games or less.
Six were schoolboys: Lewis Castle (who is with the Sandringham Dragons), Josh Ricco, Lachlan Sargeant, Jack Challands, Daniel Tunbridge and Matthew Emmanouil.
Onballer Emmanouil is leading the tackle count this year; he had 13 against Beauie.
“He’s a little energiser battery,’’ Lalor said of the 17-year-old.
At selection ahead of the match the Vultures had to count out captain Jack Edwards, vice-captain Dylan Glascott and senior player Josh Manning due to injury.
Between them there is more than 300 games of senior experience.
In came three more youngsters, including first-gamer Tunbridge, a student at Parkdale Secondary College.
“We were competitive, but we’re lacking the polish and the finishing and the skill execution at critical times, that bit of class and quality,’’ Lalor said of the Beaumaris match.
“You fight hard and then unfortunately you make those little errors that a lot of young blokes make occasionally, because they’re inconsistent, and at that level, if you give the ball back to good sides, they hurt you really quick.
“On Saturday we had some really good build-ups of play but we gave it back to Beaumaris at critical parts of the ground and they went bang on the turnover.
“Those lapses… they kicked five goals in 10 minutes in the first quarter, and we were leading at the 13-minute mark, one goal to nothing. At quarter time you’re 27, 28 points down and at the end of the game you’re only 37 points down. So we were competitive all the way through.’’
Lalor said the Vultures had showed a lot of tenacity in the past three games, playing well in patches, defending better and fighting hard for longer periods.
“A lot of these kids have now played five to eight senior games of football, and they’ll be better when they get to 20 games over the next year or two.
“It’s taken a while but all you want to see is improvement and we’re starting to see it.’’
Charlie Yee was named in the best against Beaumaris, as he has been often this season.
If the best and fairest was counted after nine rounds, he’d probably be leading it.
He’s still eligible for the Under 19s.
“Been super, Charlie. We’ve played him centre half back, centre half forward and for the last few weeks we’ve played him in the ruck. And he’s only 185cm,’’ Lalor said. “He an absolute competitor.’’
Lalor said the Vultures had “minimal expectation about win-loss or the scoreboard’’ this year.
The focus was on building for better times.
“It’s all about club, team, self... we’ve got that mantra going, and there’s a lovely feel off the field,’’ Lalor said.
“We’re getting 130 people for dinner on a Thursday night. Amazing. You get up to read these teams out and you look across the rooms and there’s all these people there. That’s with the women’s side. It’s added a new dimension to the club. The women train on a Thursday with us, and we’ve added Parkdale Vultures netball teams too. So it’s a really good place to be.’’
And it will be a better place if Lalor’s team can bob up with a win.
He senses a scalp.
“Time will tell but there might be one or two little windows of opportunity there,’’ he said.
“There might be a couple of moments when we go after someone and hopefully get a result.’’
For at least two years there has been talk about the Vultures returning to the Southern league.
They have a subcommittee surveying people at the club but there has been no approach to the SFNL and no decision has been made.
Parkdale left the Southern league at the end of the 2003 after merging with Mentone Vultures, forming Parkdale Vultures and crossing to the VAFA.
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