By Lance Jenkinson
The chance to create club history is one of the alluring factors for Dion Lawson as he takes over as player-coach of Manor Lakes.
Lawson promised his former Trentham teammates – a number of whom are playing at the Storm – that he would link up with them again in his career.
The 27-year-old felt the time was right and that Storm, playing in Western Region Football League division 2, had plenty of untapped potential.
“The major thing that drew me there is the area is untouched,” Lawson said.
“If you can bring a bit of success to that area, it’s just going to spike the interest of the community.
“You’ll get better numbers attendance-wise and the juniors will start to filter though.”
Lawson described creating that sort of history – including a first senior premiership – as “probably the biggest thing”.
Lawson’s signature was huge for Manor Lakes.
He will point the club in the right direction as a leader, on and off the field, and is still at the peak of his playing powers.
Recruited from Apollo Bay, Lawson was runner-up in that club’s best-and-fairest last season.
He is a multiple club best-and-fairest winner, has WRFL and GDFL team of the year honours and is a graduate of the Western Jets.
But Lawson, who has plied his trade as an onballer, might not be the walk-up starter he usually is.
He has brought in three top shelf recruits – midfielders Reece Miles and Dan Edwards and ruckman Daniel Jensen – to add to a Storm midfield, and already has reigning league best-and-fairest Nathan Montague in the
mix.
“That’s one thing I am looking forward to – seeing ‘Nata’ take his game to a new level,” Lawson said.
“He’s going to be surrounded by A-grade talent, which will take a bit of pressure off
him.”
While Manor Lakes is only six years old as a football club, Lawson has been employed to oversee a slight change in culture.
The Storm is keen to lift standards to ensure its younger players thrive.
“I wasn’t around so I wasn’t aware of the playing culture,” he said.
“They just wanted me to straighten it up a little bit in terms of giving it a bit of structure, a bit of direction on field, then off field try and create this culture for the young kids to strive to become better.
“As everyone knows, your young kids are the future of your footy club.
“The club’s expectation is … to tidy it up a bit on field and develop everyone.”
Lawson is ambitious. He will accept nothing short of a finals appearance by his team in his first season.
“I want to play in premierships, I want to win – that’s the way I’m going about it,” he said. “My expectation this year is at least finals. They weren’t too far off it last year, missing out on the last game of the season.
“There’s a few areas that I think if we can improve on – it will skyrocket us.”
