After demolishing Mansfield in round one, the Lions stumbled against Echuca the following week before failing to turn up for the Good Friday battle with Benalla.
At three-quarter-time, co-coach Ben Clifton hoped his troops had plenty of run in their legs — noting it did not seem they had put much energy into the first half — but the Lions failed to fire a shot in the final stanza.
Clifton made no secret of how disappointed he was in his side’s performance, citing a lack of effort as most damning on a down day.
‘‘From our front, very disappointing. Beaten all over the ground, and beaten for the entire day,’’ Clifton said.
‘‘I reckon we played five minutes of good footy and that doesn’t win you a game, or get you near it.
‘‘One of our team things is effort and I don’t think the effort was there at all.
‘‘Tackle numbers are probably an indication of that. We only had 40 for the day and that’s half as many as what we want. It was just that effort that was non-existent.’’
In the five-minute window Clifton referred to, his side vastly lifted and took control of the game, booting five goals to keep its game alive.
‘‘We won the ball out of the middle, we lowered our eyes, hit a target, put it inside 50 quick so it was one-on-one and we started kicking goals,’’ Clifton said.
‘‘That’s as simple as it was and things started to click, but it didn’t roll into the final quarter unfortunately.’’
Standing out for the Lions was ever-present Jason Cole, who won the ball with ease and brushed opponents aside at will, while Jack Murphy was also dynamic, kicking two goals and dishing off another couple to teammates.
Also exciting fans was lively forward Phillip Soloman, the crowd buzzing into life any time he got near the football, particularly during one of a handful of trademarked searing runs.
Sitting at 1-2, the Lions have yet another tough battle this round, taking on a Euroa side with the same record.
‘‘Hopefully that extra day break for us really helps, we’ll try and reset,’’ Clifton said.
‘‘I think we had a really good side in today, I think people might have thought the names on paper might have done it for us, but that’s not the case.
‘‘We’ll just get in people that are going to give that effort and intensity we require.’’
The Lions played much of the game a man down on the bench, with Rhys Clark hurting his groin in the first quarter and taking no further part in the game.
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