YOUNG coach Mark Mellish believes the Lions have established themselves as one of the Pascoe Cup's top teams after another strong campaign.
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Young were eliminated from the Pascoe Cup title race on Sunday when they suffered just their second loss of the season when going down 2-0 to Hanwood in the elimination final at Rawlings Park.
It was Young's third consecutive Pascoe Cup finals campaign after going from wooden spooners to grand finalists in 2018.
While disappointed to exit finals, Mellish believes Young is now firmly entrenched among the top teams in the competition.
"I guess now, it's not an expectation that we make finals but with the team that we've got, we're definitely one of the top teams in the comp," Mellish said.
"We're a team nobody wants to play and that's been evident in the conversations I've been having.
"It's one of those things. It's our second loss all year but what do you do."
Mellish blamed a poor start to the final for the defeat.
"Just a couple of defensive lapses. And Hanwood are a strong side, that's the problem, they will take their chances and put it away," he said.
"I actually said to the guys at half-time, it was our second worst half of football all year, which you can't afford to do in finals. But that probably says to the fact, to the naked eye everyone thinks we're playing well but I've got pretty high expectations of these guys."
Mellish was proud of the way his team responded and took the game to Hanwood in the second half.
"To their credit, they came back, we were unlucky, we hit the crossbar, we peppered and that's the biggest pride I have in the players is that they never die, they never packed up," he said.
"As I always say to any player that plays for us, as long as you leave our club a better player than when you joined, we've done our job.
"These guys here, they're outstanding people, outstanding young men, whilst it's disappointing (to lose), it is what it is."
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