By Adrian Ceddia
PORT Colts returned to become Sunshine’s nemesis for the second time in three weeks as the Kangaroos were bundled out of the Western Region Football League Division One finals on Saturday.
The Colts are through to their third grand final in a row after a clinical 71-point victory at Whitten Oval, after beating Sunshine by 100 points in their qualifying final clash two weeks ago.
The Kangaroos came into the preliminary final more confident of causing an upset after knocking Parkside from the finals race a week earlier, but were wasteful in front of goals and failed to make use of a howling wind favouring one end of the field.
Sunshine also struggled to negate the effect of Colts forward Saul Caddy, who booted six goals, including three in the second term.
Kicking with the breeze in the first quarter, Sunshine missed several opportunities and trailed by a point at the first change, and it was made to pay when the Colts slammed on eight goals in the second quarter.
Sunshine was again outscored with the wind in the third, although not through lack of entries or shots on goal inside 50 metres.
The Colts led by 38 points at three-quarter time before finishing with six goals on the breeze in the last.
Although disappointed after the match, Kangaroos coach Michael O’Keefe was proud of the team’s effort to come from being out of the finals last year to one win off a grand final the next.
“Everyone was really disappointed, but we just tried to take all the positives out of the season and where we had got to, which was a fantastic achievement for the footy club,” he said.
