By LIAM TWOMEY
SUNSHINE recovered from nine points down at three-quarter time to beat Albion by four points on Saturday.
What looked like a potential mismatch on paper proved to be anything but as Albion took the fight up to their more highly-fancied opponents.
After trailing by six points at the first break, the Cats booted six goals to three in the second quarter to take a 12 point lead into half-time.
In what was a hard-fought contest all over the ground, neither side could break away at the resumption of play with just two goals kicked in the third quarter.
However, Sunshine rallied in the final term with four goals to secure the 12.15 (87) to 12.11 (83) win.
Despite the difference in ladder positions between the two sides, Sunshine coach Brett Jacobs wasn’t surprised his opponents came out firing.
“I was expecting them to be pretty good,” he said.
“They are always pretty good against us. There is a bit of rivalry between our clubs so there is never an easy game against them.
“We certainly weren’t playing our best footy and I was disappointed in that but that sort of comes down to the opposition. They were playing well. Their pressure was good and it was forcing us to make mistakes that we don’t normally make.”
Russell Douglas, Chris Tripodi and Thomas Millar were all outstanding for Sunshine, booting six goals between them to feature in the club’s best players.
For Albion, Mohamed Dibb proved dangerous in front of the big sticks, kicking three goals.
Despite the club not playing at its best, Jacobs is taking a lot of positives from the result.
“Even though it wasn’t our greatest win of the year, we will certainly take a fair bit from it,” he said.
“We had to work really hard for the points. The guys haven’t had a good record at Albion over the years so it was a game where they had to stand up in the last quarter when the momentum might have been against us.
“I thought the guys rallied really well and were able to hang on.”
The result sees Sunshine remain in outright fourth position on the WRFL division one ladder with a 7-3 win/loss record for the season.
The news isn’t as good for Albion which is in eighth spot.
When round 11 gets underway this Saturday, Sunshine will take on North Footscray and Albion do battle with Altona.
