By LIAM TWOMEY
ST ALBANS coach Marcus Barclay has labelled Deer Park one of the best sides he has seen in local football after the Lions topped the Saints by 65 points last week.
In what is now the traditional opening to the Division One season, Deer Park took a 15-point lead into quarter time and continued to pull away.
With the margin increased to 41 at the half-time break, the Saints did their best to slow the juggernaut.
St Albans won the third term by a point before the Lions regrouped for one last charge.
Deer Park finished with four goals in the final term to seal the 15.13 (103) to 5.8 (38) win.
“They were close to the best local football side that I have seen in many years,” Barclay said.
“What they have got on the park, it is just better than what local footy has ever seen. Even the guys that played in the premiership last year who weren’t AFL/VFL, the local players, they have even sort of got better with better players around them. It is a bit scary.
“As far as what we can take out of it, we are not sure. A 10-goal loss is a 10-goal loss but whether that is the Deer Park blueprint for the whole year, I guess we don’t know.”
In his first game back at Deer Park since stepping down as head coach after the 2012 season, James Condos was straight back into the thick of the action on his way to a bag of five goals.
He was well supported by first game recruit James Wong who kicked two.
Around the ground, Kwame McHarg and Heath Ayres were among Deer Park’s best players.
For St Albans, Lachlan Baddeley and Dion Lawson were the Saints’ only multiple goal kickers with two each.
Both Deer Park and St Albans will enjoy eight-day breaks before their respective round two clashes this week with the Lions set to take on Werribee Districts while the Saints will meet Albion.
“They (Albion) played well against Altona (in round one) so they will take a lot of confidence out of that. For us it is important for the fact that we would like to be 1-1.
“We beat Albion twice last year. I would assume they have improved since then. They have got an ex-premiership captain as coach. He is a good man Aaron Tymms and I’m sure they will come out 100 miles an hour and it will be good to see what we have taken out of last Friday night’s game.”
