Lions’ early season reality check

Nagambie kicked 15.8 to Stanhope’s 5.3 after half-time and won the match 20.15 (135) to 7.9 (51).

Girgarre was also humbled in round one, losing by 129 points to Shepparton East.

Just a week after facing the Kangaroos, Stanhope will come up against reigning premier Lancaster.

Nagambie led by just nine points at quarter-time on Saturday and the margin only blew out to 19 points at half-time.

From that point, however, the Stanhope coach said his team’s attitude and approach to the game “lacked intensity”.

He said he expected the real improvement in his team to come later in the season, but explained the Lions could not afford a slow start.

“It was a pretty awful way to start, but it is only round one,” Adamson said.

“We’ve been brought back down to earth nice and early and both myself and the players have had it laid out to us pretty quickly.

“This is a reality check.”

Adamson said he and the club did have reasonable expectations for the season, which made the result all the more shocking.

“In the back end of pre-season hopes were high, but this isn’t the end of the world,” he said.

“I won’t let the players, or myself, off the hook, but it is not round 15.”

Adamson said the result may have been even more shocking if not for the work of fullback Alex O’Reilly and half backs, Adam Lovison and Stuart Trevena.

“We got soundly beaten in the mid-field and they were under the pump in that second half,” he said.

Key forwards Jake and Tomas Rennie kicked two goals each, as did Jonathan Pearson, accounting for all but one of the Stanhope majors.

The other goal came from Strathmerton recruit and former Kyabram junior Darcy Keck. Ruckman Daniel Flynn and captain Craig Emmett, who will this week play his 300th senior game with the club, were also solid contributors in the one-sided result.

– Brad and Josh Canny also did all they could to get the Stanhope reserves team across the line in the lead-up match, losing by just five points in a thrilling finish.

Nagambie dominated the Lions at Under-18 level, the reigning premier sending a warning shot across the bow of the competition with a 146-8 result.