Altona’s Liam Gardiner takes an uncontested mark against St Albans. 68575 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
ALTONA dislodged St Albans from the hotly contested third ladder spot after thumping the undermanned Saints by 65 points at Kings Park Reserve.
The Vikings hold on to third spot over the Saints by percentage only but are best placed to secure the double chance The other club with designs on third position, Port Melbourne, is one game behind and will take on Altona this Saturday in what has all the ingredients of a blockbuster.
Altona coach Anthony Eames says the must-win game against the Colts has come at the right time for the side, which exhibited the makings of a top-class side against the Saints.
“I thought it was a four-quarter committed team effort. I don’t think we had any absolute stand-out. Everyone played their role and did their job,” he said.
“I think we’re starting to realise that when we can play that brand of team football we’re going to be a chance against whoever we play.”
St Albans kicked the first goal within the opening minute but Altona took control from then, kicking six goals to amass a 26-point lead at quarter-time. The Vikings never let St Albans back in the game.
After Altona opened up an eight-goal lead at half-time, St Albans half-threatened a comeback with the first two goals of the third, but the Vikings weathered the storm and maintained a health margin to win 21.14 (140) to 11.9 (75).
St Albans coach Ian Denney said his side suffered from a lack of discipline and lack of tall players.
“We probably gave up about five goals from undisciplined acts, which was a bit unusual for us, and that probably was the difference in the game,” he said.
“It all happened in a quarter and a half of footy – all of a sudden we probably gave them five goals they shouldn’t have got.”
St Albans lost senior players Aaron Henneman and Jarrod Tuppen to injury after its shock defeat of Spotswood in round 13. Denney said it was a significant factor in the result, but was disappointed in failure of his side to cover those losses.
Eames, in contrast, said his side had an even contribution with no stand-outs. There’s no better evidence of this than the goalkicking list, which showed eight players kicking multiple goals.
Bilbal El Souki, Timothy Andrews and Ziad Kadour kicked three goals each, with five others kicking two each.
“My view is to have numerous avenues to goal, you can’t necessarily rely on one or two,” Eames said.
“We don’t have any stand-outs in our side as far as goalkickers goes but I think we’re nice and even and it makes the opposition really have to think about match-ups on us.
“I thought both clubs attacked the ball hard all day. I thought our backline was terrific all day and I thought they combined well. We got a third man up on some dangerous forwards they have in (Damien) Fitzpatrick and (Daniel) McKerracher. I thought we nullified them really well.
“Nathan Giles and Liam Gardiner combined really well in the ruck.”
Eames said playing against Port Colts in the penultimate round of the home-and-away season would be ideal preparation for the finals series.
“Teams like that, with their finals
experience that they’ve had in the
past 10 years, it’s certainly some-
thing that our guys can benefit from
and I think that game for us is coming
at the right time of the year.
“The win for us is just as desperate as it is for Port Colts, so we’re expecting an extremely physical, hard, tough game and I think it’s coming at the right time for us.”
Altona 21.14 (140) d St Albans 11.9 (75)
Goals – Altona: B. El Souki, T. Andrews 3. St Albans: B. Taylor 4, A. Ford 3. Best – Altona: D. Barnaby, J. Hevern. St Albans: S. Hoare, P. Dalinkiewicz.
