TAYLORS Lake Football Club has declared Horsham District Football League finals next year are within reach as it looks to rebound from a horror 2013.
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The football team has been in pre-season training under new head coach Deek Roberts and assistant Pat Purcell since October.
This year the Lakers lost every game and 17 of their 18 losses were by more than 100 points.
Their biggest loss – of 276 points – came at the hands of Kalkee in round four.
With a huge influx of recruits and a renewed commitment to training, club officials expect the team to be much more competitive next year and push for a place in the finals.
The club has recruited 13 players from other clubs and hopes to announce more signings soon.
Roberts said the team had great numbers completing pre-season training.
He said the club would be cheating itself if finals were not a goal next season.
“We’ve been getting good numbers on the training track – I think our biggest so far has been 35 but we usually average about 19 or 20 blokes a night,” he said.
“We’re all training hard and we probably started the earliest of anyone in the league so there’s a good feeling around the club.
“If I do myself right and everyone commits and listens, I’d like to think we can push for the fifth position.
“You’ve got to aim big and with the blokes we’ve picked up, if everything goes to plan and everyone plays well we can definitely snatch fifth.”
Taylors Lake president Brad Dwyer said the club was also aiming to become more professional in the new year.
“We’re right into social media and we’ve just introduced a smartphone app for the club,” he said.
“We’ve got people in place for sponsorship and grants, so we’ve got a lot more going on for the 2014 season.”
The club’s under-17 team is also preparing to make a return next season, with good numbers in pre-season training under coach Sam Rintoule.
Mr Dwyer said any juniors interested in joining the team could call the club.
Taylors Lake recruits: Deek Roberts, coach; Pat Purcell, assistant coach; Jim Stewart, Hopetoun; Chris Farrell, Jeparit-Rainbow; Tom McGennisken, Josh Young, Dylan Young, Dylan Carroll, Natimuk; Jayson Thompson, Horsham; Jack McRae, Zac Anderson, Horsham Saints; Kyal Murray, Horsham RSL Diggers; James Offer, year off from Taylors Lake.