RIVERINA FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A RIVERINA Football League premiership is no longer a tall order for Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong as the Lions secured an early Christmas present in the form of three key recruits.
GGGM premiership forward James Lawton is set to return to the club and will be joined by fellow key-position players Josh Walsh and Billy Watt at Ganmain Sportsground next year.
Lawton played in a GGGM premiership as a 17-year-old and has gone on to play football at Victorian Football League (VFL) and South Australian National Football League (SANFL) level in recent years.
Not only does the recruitment of Lawton, Walsh and Watt provide GGGM with three quality recruits but it adds some much-needed height to a Lions team that severely lacked key talls this year.
GGGM coach Jayden Kotzur is delighted to add some quality talls to the Lions team.
"We knew height last year was a huge deficiency so that's something we wanted to go about fixing," Kotzur said.
"It's working out well so far in that we've been able to pick up where we needed to pick up.
"I'm pretty happy at this stage and we've got a few of things still in progress where hopefully we'll able to get a couple more on board in the next few weeks."
Lawton, 23, spent this season with Angaston in the Barossa, Light and Gawler Football Association and kicked 48 goals from 10 games.
Before that, he spent a year each at Glenelg and Central District in the SANFL and was with Coburg in the VFL during the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
The Lions plan to use him at either full-forward or centre-half-forward.
"We're absolutely stoked to have Jimbo on board," Kotzur said.
"He's six foot five, athletic and a cracker."
Walsh played three games for GGGM this year on permit from AFL Canberra club Queanbeyan.
Watt spent this year at Hume League club Lockhart but is a best and fairest winner at Eastlake in the AFL Canberra division one competition.
Both Walsh and Watt have the ability to play key position at either end of the ground, or in the ruck.
Kotzur now has plenty of options at his disposal.
"It gives us versatility," he said.
"We've already got Benny Walsh who can play forward or back, and Josh can do the same.
"It's the same with Billy.
"We could change week to week, we haven't had anyone really that week to week we could swing around.
"It just gives us more options."
The recruitment of Lawton, Walsh and Watt comes on the back of the signings of Nathan McPherson and Jacob Wooden.
The Lions only losses to date are Daniel Rankin (retirement) and Matt Clarke (Osborne).