Thomson Tigers off to a red hot start in 2022 GDFL season

A REJUVENATED Thomson Tigers Football side is being driven off field by recent coaching acquisition Paul Lynch, having only lost one of the first five games of the season to sit tied for second on the GDFL table.

Five rounds into a stacked and competitive Geelong District Football League season, Inverleigh and Geelong West currently sit atop the perch with an undefeated record, while Thomson and East Geelong sit tied for second.

Going into 2022, the Tigers behind Lynch’s prowess, looked to concentrate on a defensive ‘hard to score against’ structure which would hopefully return them to premiership contention.

“As a club, we’ve been absolutely rapt with the player and staff’s buy-in to Paul’s gameplan which is currently holding us in a good spot,” football operations manager Troy Smith said.

“It’s been a strong start to the season, however, in saying that we do recognise that there is plenty of games left in the season and as a club we have plenty of areas that we want to improve on to keep us at the top end.”

No stranger to the coaching ranks, Lynch has tasted premiership success as a coach with GFL clubs Lara and Colac, as well as Birregurra in the Colac and District League.

Under Lynch, with a fresh-looking squad that includes 10-plus strong recruits, the Tigers defensive focus has seen them only concede over 10 goals twice in the first five games of the season.

“As a coach, my philosophy is around defence and it’s a mantra that has been successful so far for us this year,” Lynch said.

“We all learn how to attack when we are youngsters, however I believe that defense comes with time and it’s something that comes with practice and effort.

“As a club we recognise that being defence first makes us hard to score against and therefore by doing so, we can combine our strong back half efforts into good attacking up forward.”

A potent attacking unit including former Newcomb Power spearhead Andrew Mead-Harding, veteran Daniel Freeman and 2016 Whitley medallist Brent Macleod are currently leading the charge up forward with the trio combining for 40 goals in the first five weeks of the season.

“In our first five matches, we’ve had plenty of inside 50s, however we are constantly trying to improve on our efficiency when we hit the scoreboard as we’ve kicked more behinds than goals in most games this season,” Lynch said.

“Daniel Freeman has really been leading the charge in a scoring regard and has been huge for us so far in 2022.

“We seem to have a good amount of firepower in that forward rotation so it’ll be about getting those guys used to playing with each other and evening the scoring ability across the entirety of our team.”

Currently sitting at 4-1 on the GDFL table, the Tigers will look to assert themselves as the ones to beat when they take on flag fancies Inverleigh and North Geelong inside the next month of the season.

Smith alluded to the fact that the next month of the year will shape the Tigers season in a massive way.

“We’ve got a tough month ahead with some real marquee games that we want to assert ourselves on,” he said.

“As a club, we look forward to the challenges that the year and the opportunities that will continue to present.”

The Tigers will look to return to their winning ways on home soil this Saturday afternoon when they face off against an in form competitive Bannockburn Tigers outfit.