Tara Murray
Albion will be back in Western Region Football division 1 next season for the first time since 2019, but Cats have plenty of hard work to do first.
The Cats are one of three teams, along with Sunshine and Newport, that will be promoted to division 1 next season to make it a 12 team division 1 competition.
After just falling short in last season’s decider, the Cats are undefeated in their quest for the division 2 premiership this year.
Coach Blake Richards said it’s exciting for the club.
“Last year we got the chance to go up as well, but the club decided it didn’t want to go up,” he said. “We were hoping to get the boys some success before going up. Now we’re ready to go up.”
The return to the top flight shows how far the club has come.
The club was relegated from division 1 after the 2019 season after failing to win a game.
During the two Covid years the club struggled to get players to training, getting just 20 players at times.
They started the comeback in 2022 under James Doherty before making the grand final last year in Richards first year coaching the side.
“There has been a lot of hard work by the committee to get the club back where it is,” he said.
“It’s a credit to them and they stuck around and hopefully they will get some enjoyment out of it all.”
While the Cats know where they are playing next season, they are focused on finishing this year strongly.
Richards said they are clear with what they want to achieve.
“We want to win this flag,” he said. “It gives the boys some good members and friendships for ever.
“It makes a big difference making a grand final, to winning a flag. We still have to make it first.”
With top spot locked up Albion is focused on making sure it’s firing for the right time of the year.
They were set to face North Sunshine on Saturday after deadline, before finishing the season against Sunshine Heights.
It was a big win against the Roadrunners, with Albion winning 49.29 (323)-2.1 (13).
Cooper Muir kicked 16 goals.
Richards said they had just about a full list to pick from with Jesse Cavanagh to return during the finals, in an added boost.
“We’ll do fitness work at training,” he said. “We’ll work on a couple of structures and look to add a couple of goals week to week.
“We want to get there [finals] without injuries. We should win those two games and work on some things.”
