By RUSSELL BENNETT
LANG Lang is still yet to record its first win of the senior Ellinbank and District Football League season, but from where the club has come from in recent seasons these Tigers are looking stronger and decidedly bolder.
New player-coach Shane Urbans has come across from Fish Creek and is just one of an influx of new players at the showgrounds which includes Luke Damon, also from Fish Creek, Travis Reints from the Frankston Bombers, and Geoff Hibberd and Luke Forsyth from Chirnside Park.
All told, there are well over a dozen fresh faces in and around the senior side in a dramatic overhaul of last season’s set-up at the Tigers den.
With Brad Palmer also back at the club from Pearcedale, a snowball effect led to a host of peninsula-based players coming across.
And while the Tigers have endured a rough 0-3 start to 2015 – the latest loss having come at the hands of the Demons on Anzac Day – they seem well placed to achieve success throughout the remainder of their season, and moving forward with an eye on the development of the new sporting precinct at Caldermeade.
“We’ve got plenty of numbers on the track and that breeds excitement,” Urbans told the Gazette recently.
“A lot of the young blokes have lifted their intensity and are pushing the older blokes along. It’s been really good.
“Boppa (Aaron Creasey) is our senior captain, and T-Mac (Troy McPherson) – who has come back from Nyora – is our vice-captain and they’ve really been pushing things, which have been great.
“Boppa was a little bit disheartened with how things went last season and I think he has really risen to this new challenge.”
Urbans played a dozen seasons at Pearcedale before switching to Langwarrin for four years, and Fish Creek for the past season.
He has again laced up the boots this season for a role in the Tigers midfield, but his focus is on developing the club’s promising youngsters.
“Myself and a few of the blokes I’ve brought across have had success, so we know what that’s like and we want it again.
“We’re still hungry and, hopefully, the young blokes feed off that,” he said.
The Tigers will look to kick-start their season this Saturday at home against Poowong from 2pm.
