By Mathew Asciak
The Lions had their first pre-season hit-out against fellow standalone club Frankston at Linen House Oval on Saturday afternoon.
Coburg started brightly, with usual suspect Sam Lowson opening the scoring.
The dominance continued throughout the quarter, with the lead extended to nine points at the break, following goals from recruit Harry Andronaco and Corey Ellis respectively.
The second term was tightly contested, with neither side getting full control over the flow of the game. That was until Lowson executed some great small forward craft, reading the ball off a stoppage in the forward pocket and snapping truly on his left boot. Frankston were wasteful in front of goal, missing a handful of easy chances. Another new member to Coburg, Edyn Sibbald, got his name of the scorecard, with an instinctive poacher like finish after a goal line scramble.
After some great body work by Lowson inside our attacking 50, a courageous contested grab by skipper Pete McEvoy gave the Burgers an early buffer at the start of the 3rd term. The lead was extended further by recruit Dylan Thomas, who kicked truly from 35m out following a free kick. The good start to the quarter was undone somewhat later in the term, with numerous 50m penalties resulting in a flurry of late goals to the Dolphins, cutting the lead to seven points at the final change.
Ending the game strongly, Frankston outscored the Lions four goals to one to finish eventual 10 point victors. Their ability to get inside 50 entries, which ended plus nine in the favour of Frankston, was too much for the Lions on the day, despite inaccurate kicking.
Final score:
Coburg: 8.4.52
Frankston: 8.14.62
