Altona will take that giant leap from Lacrosse Victoria’s division one to state league this year.
The Vikings have not played in the top-flight since 2010, but are ready to mix it with Victoria’s elite once again.
“After the [premiership] win last year in divvy one, we thought now would be a good time,” Vikings’ president Bernard McDonald said. “We’ve got the right mix of seniors and juniors, and they’re at the right age, most of them in their prime, so now is a better time than any.”
The last time Altona was in the premier competition, it had a talented but ageing player roster. It took the best part of seven years to totally replenish the stocks and get the collective to state league level.
This team is arguably more talented and in a better age bracket for a sustained run of success.
“In 2010, it was a very old group, and a lot of them were at the stage of retiring,” McDonald said. “The group that we’ve got now are in the prime age, between 20 and 30 the majority of them.
“We have a big lump of them who are representative players, especially the juniors, so I think we’ll do a lot better than we did last time. There’s a lot of talent there.”
A major asset for Altona is left-handed attacker Campbell Mackinnon.
While away on representative duty, Mackinnon got to work alongside the best players in state league, and felt that his side would be able to compete with the big boys.
“He played in the senior Victorian side last time when they went to Perth,” McDonald said.
“Since he’s come back from that, he said I’ve seen the best and I think we’re there … so he’s one of the guys we sort of based our decision on as well.”
Mackinnon has been a star of division one for Altona in recent seasons, consistently winning best and fairest awards.
Mackinnon and brother Lachlan, an Australian indoor lacrosse representative, could hold the keys to success for the Vikings.
Altona will also be able to take advantage of a rule permitting it to play three imports.
The Vikings are already in discussions with three Americans for this season and a US-based coach to take over from Mark Lewer in 2018.
“Originally we were going to go up next year, but we decided that we can’t really plan if we don’t know what to plan for, or what we need to work on,” McDonald said.
“We figured that we’ll go up there and work out what they can do, and find out what we need to work on to become competitive.
“With him coming out this year, it’s better that he can see us in state league and see what we need to work on this year, rather than coming out next year and starting again … so it will give us a head start for 2018.”
