The senior side ultimately didn't make the most of its chances, finishing ninth on the ladder at season's end, but the reserve side finished third.

"We didn't have the wins that we were hoping for, but we came very close," McDonald said.

"We've come from seasons where we were getting beaten by 100 points every week and we haven't won a game. A lot of the games that we played this year, we only lost by between 30 and 40 points. There was definitely improvement there."

Another area of development were the juniors who were able to get a taste of senior football, McDonald said.

RELATED STORIES:

"We have juniors that have come up through the junior ranks and are now playing seniors, they've really gelled together now," she said.

"When you bring in a few new players to the team and the improvement is there, we just need just that little bit more."

In the back half of the season the Lakers were able to build on that improvement and clinch victories over Pimpinio and Edenhope-Apsley, although a few big losses to Harrow-Balmoral, Noradjua-Quantong and Kaniva-Leeor soured things somewhat.

The Taylors Lake reserve side fared comparatively better, finishing third on the ladder overall.

The Lakers' reserve success was built on victories over other top six sides Rupanyup (40 points in round four; 57 points in round 12), Swifts (32 points in round six) as the Lakers stormed into the HDFNL reserve top six and cemented a spot in the finals.

READ MORE:

Big wins, including a mammoth 140-point win over Edenhope-Apsley, set the Lakers in good stead, as they finished the season with nine wins.

The Lakers could well have placed even higher than third if it weren't for two narrow back-to-back losses to the Bombers (seven points) and Cougars (two points) in rounds nine and 10 respectively.

Nevertheless, with finals still up in the air all eyes turn to 2022 and recruitment is the name of the game for the Lakers, McDonald said.

"We're actually looking to try and keep the family together a little bit more over the off season than what we would normally. We know things like tennis and cricket take over, but, depending on what restrictions there are, we're going to keep trying to have a few social functions over the off season," she said.

"That's one of our main things that we'll be doing club wide, but we're also already heavily starting to recruit of coaches and new players, both football and netball, and right across both juniors and seniors."

Ultimately, while the lack of wins at a senior level was disappointing, McDonald won't dwell too long on it.

"Success at a club is more than just the senior football, we've shown that this year. Without being able to field three of the teams that we normally would we still got out there and we still saw wins on the board," she said.

"We still saw people turning up to training and every Saturday to play and had three teams overall make the finals. Being a successful club is more than just the senior football."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: