Soul searching the key for young Lions

By Hugh Fitzpatrick 

The Pakenham Lions showed true grit and determination last Saturday in beating the undefeated Mount Evelyn in front of a number of life members who watched courtside at Toomuc Reserve.  

“It was a really special day for our club, to have our life members court side through the annual member’s lunch and be rewarded with a win like that is always exciting,” said club president Marg Jones.

A win like this was few and far between in the 2018 season; however a re-energised young group is led by Captain Emma Jones, Coach Karen Meredith and the President Marg Jones in 2019. A passionate human, you can hear it in the way Marg speaks about her club, that the Lions mean the world to her, and she means the world to them. 

Jones chose not to boast about the upset of the round and a season best performance, but rather saw it as an opportunity to celebrate her club and the people who have helped behind the scenes. 

Marg has been involved with the Pakenham Lions for over 12 years and spoke about how delighted she was for her girls and how much they’ve achieved so far this year, one of massive change. 

“I’m so proud of this young group of A grade girls, they re-grouped from what was a disappointing year last year and showed what they are made of on Saturday against an undefeated Mount Evelyn side,” 

“I always knew that we were going to be stronger this year, and to beat them at home made the committee and I extremely proud.”

Coach Karen Meredith spoke about the excitement and energy around the club in the pre-season trial matches.  

“They were the biggest numbers since I’ve been here, which has given us more depth in our senior teams with the addition of the some of the Under 17s coming up, so that also added to the trial numbers for the seniors,” Meredith said.

“It’s added a lot of competition for the places available.”

 

Marg couldn’t help but mention every single player who played for the A grade side against Mount Evelyn, she looks at all her girls as a collective unit, and credits this as one of the reasons they’re playing so well. 

However she isn’t getting carried away; she knows how much it means to the community when her girls are winning, and is keeping an eye on next week as she tries to keep a lid on the season so far.

 

“I’m very confident in my girls; we have fantastic coaches that will do all the preparation needed to be fully prepared come next Saturday against Monbulk.”