Lara coach looks at the positives

Lara coach Brett Henderson has looked at the positives in his 2025 GFL campaign, despite his side failing to register a win this year.

It has been a season of development for the young Cats, who went down to South Barwon in Round 10 by 195 points.

However, Henderson believes the scores tells a different story to what he is seeing in his side on field, particularly with the players on the younger end of the age scale.

“There have been a lot of small wins and positives if you take away the scoreboard,” he said.

“It’s been good to see what works and doesn’t work and what needs fixing.

“I was hoping we could be more competitive but with the youth in the team this is going to take time.”

“The development of our players in the 16–21-year age group has been impressive at times.

In recent weeks, Henderson feels there has been improvement compared to the early rounds of the year, where losing margins were as high as 276 points.

“We have certainly focussed more on our defence and after the first couple of matches we have made some adjustments to the way we want to play,” he said.

“(A positive is that) we have been able to stop opponents kicking huge scores over the past five weeks.”

Henderson said the Cats will continue to focus on trying to match it with the best in the GFL, and is hopeful his side will be rewarded for its efforts with a win.

“We really want to become more competitive and work towards winning some games in the second half of the season.

“We want to improve our results from the first round of matches and close the gap.

“Supporters can look forward to watching a very young team continue its development.”

Lara’s first win may not be far away, with matches against the ninth-placed St Albans and 10-placed Grovedale to come in the next two rounds.