ST ALBANS knocked Altona out of the finals race on Sunday in one of the most thrilling Western Region Football League games this season.
The seven-point win came at a cost, with several injuries sustained during the battle of attrition, but the Cinderella story continued for the brave Saints, who weathered several challenges to advance to the semi-final against Sunshine this Sunday.
The last quarter itself provided more than enough entertainment and drama for the entry fee. Both teams were playing a man short and running almost on empty, but refused to lie down. The Saints taking the action-packed clash 8.12 (60) to 7.11 (53).
With St Albans three points up at the start of the quarter, Altona came out all guns blazing but didn’t make the most of its opportunities.
This was also the case in the first quarter, when the Vikings kicked an inaccurate 1.8 while keeping the Saints scoreless.
Altona’s Sam Irwin-Hill missed a relatively straightforward snap, which would have put his side in front in the last quarter, and soon after Adam O’Keefe’s shot for goal missed everything.
Altona was finally rewarded when Samuel Mason converted a beautiful snap to put the Vikings four points up.
But, after absorbing the pressure, the momentum swung in St Albans’ favour, with a thumping goal by Craig Brown putting the Saints back in front.
The deciding goal came about by a defensive error and act of last-gasp desperation. Tim Senserrick lunged to smother a kick from Altona’s Simon Hicks in the backline, retrieved the ball and dribbled it through for a goal to post a 13-point lead.
The final goal from Altona in the dying minutes of the game, wasn’t enough to get them over the line.
St Albans coach Ian Denny said the game epitomised what local finals footy was all about.
“We’re probably not the two greatest sides that have ever run around in the A Grade but at the end of the day they were two sides who were committed and had a bit of a crack,” he said.
“It was a good courageous game of footy…it was two teams making the contest and I think it was fantastic for local football.
“Throughout the whole game the pendulum kept swinging. (Altona coach Anthony) Eames has really done well with his group, and we’re pretty proud of our group where we’ve come from. We’ve probably got 10 players different from where we were in round six-seven and we’ll probably have another few different next week.
“We already had key players out with injuries, and the blokes who were taking their spot got injured.”
Denny said his side was likely to have at least two players missing for the knock-out final against Sunshine.
“The good part was that our key players like (Tim) Jenkins, (Marc) Dawson, (Craig) Brown and (Jack) Sims, they train every training, and they’re the ones who had really strong bodies at the end and were still making contests, so I think that goes to show those who put in the hard yards will get the good results, that’s why they’re your better players.”
While the St Albans side will look more like the side that was comfortably beaten by Sunshine in round eight than the side who defeated the Kangaroos in round 17, Denny is confident his side can play a good enough shut-down game to get over the line.
“They beat us pretty easily a few weeks ago. They got off to a flyer and we couldn’t peg them back, but for the three quarters after that we stayed in the game, so we just need to make sure we get off to a good start and scoreboard pressure could make the opposition panic a little bit. We’ve beaten eight out of the nine teams we’ve played against this year so we’re pretty proud of that.
“Finals are a different game. Superstars struggle in the finals because lesser player will take on the challenge, and if you got players who will take on the challenge, all of a sudden we can shut down some players who we might not shut down during the year.”
