Altona’s David Barnaby gets his kick away as Kevin Klix applies pressure. 82239 Picture: DAMIAN VISENTINI
By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
ALTONA’S 54-point win against Deer Park on Saturday was the Viking’s best yet, according to coach Anthony Eames.
The Vikings were three goals down early in the third quarter, but turned up the heat and overran the Lions to win their seventh game of the Western Region Football League season 19.10 (124) to 10.10 (70).
“We had been pretty ordinary in the first half, and we changed a couple of things up in regards to our forward structure which they really played it out to instruction really well,” Eames said.
“They had much more of a crack.”
Leading the way were Anthony Chiu, Mitch Turnbull and Lee Spiteri, while Matthew Cross and former captain coach Aaron Freeland played their first senior game of the season and slotted in well, suggesting a side with plenty of depth.
Eames said his side had not put four solid quarters together yet, but its performance against Deer Park showed the side was improving some of the weaknesses that were more apparent earlier in the season.
“I think our consistency with our effort on the ball is the main thing. Our one percenters need to be a lot better than they were in the first eight weeks,” he said.
“Our consistent tackling and willingness to force the opposition into turnovers and put pressure on – they’re some of the basics which have led to us being a little bit inconsistent.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what we do, it’s more about working on the areas that have been missing, and we’ve been doing it in the last two-three weeks, and as a result we had a really good win against quality opposition.
“We haven’t played four quarters yet, but in saying that Deer Park were really good and didn’t allow us to play that way in the first half.
Altona is sitting second on the ladder behind Spotswood, the only team it has lost to this season.
“We’re now in a position where we’ve played everyone outside of Sunshine, so we’ve had a really good look at everybody as they have of us. If we can keep improving in what we’re doing now, we’re certainly a distinct possibility to finish top three at the worst and we can launch from there.”
Deer Park has been hit hard by injury this season and is sixth on the ladder with three wins from eight games, but Eames said he had “no doubt” the Lions would play finals this season.
