By LIAM TWOMEY
ALTONA easily accounted for Sunshine to the tune of 74 points in round nine of the Western Region Football League on Saturday.
The Vikings didn’t have it all their own way though and were forced to fight hard during a tough first quarter.
After taking a slender seven-point lead into the opening break, Altona clicked into top gear as the margin quickly grew.
An eight goal to two final quarter capped off the impressive performance from the reigning premier which secured the 18.16 (124) to 8.2 (50) victory.
“They really came out to play Sunshine,” Altona coach Anthony Eames said.
“We butchered it a little bit going forward and had a lot of scoring shots, which we wasted and a lot of forward 50 entries, which missed their targets.
“They would have copped a bit of a serve at half time and they came out and had another crack in that third quarter but just sort of ran out of legs a little bit.
“I think we are starting to put four quarters together now. It doesn’t matter if we are scoring eight goals or going in level. It’s not about the scoreboard it is about the effort for four quarters and that is what we are starting to show.”
Jayden Post maintained his reputation as a thorn in the side of every WRFL defender, adding another five goals to his 2013 tally to be the dominant forward on the ground.
He was joined in the multiple goal scorers by Munir El Houli and Mitchell Turnbull, who each kicked three goals while Josh Rafferty and Richard Knight finished with two.
For Sunshine Mitch Hahn worked hard, kicking two goals and Mitchell Ellis was named the Kangaroos’ best player for the day.
Saturday’s result sees Altona move to a 7-2 win/loss record for the season and remain in third place on the WRFL ladder.
Sunshine now slips a game behind the top three with six wins for the season.
When round 10 gets underway this weekend, Sunshine will meet nearby rival Albion while Altona will take on Spotswood in a replay of last year’s grand final.
“I think the break has done us good. We are mentally refreshed and we can prepare this week for a similar performance because we are going to need it against Spotswood,” Eames said.
“I thought we were pretty ordinary against Spotty in round one when we played them. We played one quarter of footy there and Spotty really dominated the rest of the game but couldn’t put us away.
“I think all things considered … we are going to need to be in very good form to beat them.”
