By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
ALBION restored some pride after its crushing first round loss to Spotswood by overcoming a plucky North Footscray by 18 points in the second round of the WRFL on Saturday.
The Cats were in front all game but never held a comfortable buffer against the persistent Devils, but were resilient enough to secure a confidence-boosting win.
“Just to come out and have that first win at home was really important to get the season started,” Albion coach Mark Greenshields said.
“We were shown to be clearly a long way off the mark after last week. It was a very disappointing performance and the margin was unacceptable.”
Greenshields said Spotswood exposed several of the Cats’ weaknesses, which they were slowly starting to rectify.
“Certainly our ball movement was one of them and certainly that was really much improved against North Footscray.
“I thought in general play we were really able to control the game. At no stage were we ever in control of the scoreboard unfortunately, but in general play it just felt like we were playing the better brand of footy right throughout the four quarters.
“One of the issues we’ve had over preseason is obviously our departures but right from the first practice match we’ve been continually getting injuries week in week out, so yesterday down to 19 men at quarter time.
“To North Footscray’s credit they just never went away. Their persistence and pressure was really good and certainly didn’t allow us to have it our own way at any stage, but just the character to be able to fight it out and to finish really strongly particularly given we were really limited with our rotations for three quarters.”
Sam Stephens was magnificent for Albion, playing mostly in the midfield but pushing forward late in the game and finishing with four goals. His brother James was also among Albion’s best players, while another set of brothers, Brent and Matthew Davis, were also superb.
Albion will play Hoppers Crossing this Saturday.
