Tara Murray
Albion stamped itself as the clear premiership favourite in the Western Football League division 2 competition.
After narrowly beating Newport in the previous round, the undefeated Cats faced Sunshine in a top of the table clash.
The Kangaroos only loss of the season came in the first meeting between the two sides.
It was the Cats that got off to the fast start and were able to open by a 26 point lead at quarter time.
It was a lead that would prove vital and something the Cats built on in the second half as they ran away with a 9.12 (66)-4.5 (29) win.
Cats coach Blake Richards said these were the sort of challenges they had been looking forward to.
“It was a good day for the footy club,” he said. The last three weeks we’ve had some tougher games against some sides to the top end of the ladder.
“It was good against Newport and we had a few players out so we tried some guys in different positions.
“We added a few more yesterday.”
Richards said it was wet and pretty slippery all day. He said the start was the key to the match.
“We were first to get to the footy which was really good,” he said.
“We kicked four goals to one in the first quarter and when it’s wet it’s hard to come back from there.
“We controlled the first half and it flowed on from there.”
The Cats again threw the magnets around in the second half.
Daniel Bramich, who was thrown forward last week and started their this week, moved into the ruck.
“The last couple of weeks we’ve had some key forwards out,” Richards said. “We put him in the ruck yesterday.
“The fact that the guy we’ve put at full back, Juy Capp, has held the role up well, the experiment has worked really well.”
Christopher Tomazos, Joshua Bench and Caleb McPherson were named the Cats best.
Mathew Medcraft kicked two goals for the Kangaroos with Ethan Sivijs named their best.
The Cats now sit two games clear on top of the ladder.
Richards said they would start focusing on what they need to do for finals.
He said they’ll start to get some players back in the next few weeks, including skipper Cooper Muir this week and Jesse Cavanagh is looking at a return in the first week of finals.
“We’ll have a really good block before finals and look to get them fitter,” he said. “We play some of the lower sides, we want to do everything right for finals.”
In other results, Braybrook’s slipped outside the top six with a 9.14 (68)-1.4 (10) loss to Braybrook.
Sunshine Heights came from behind to beat the Western Rams, 12.11 (83)-11.8 (74), while Albanvale beat Laverton, 16.9 (105)-6.12 (48).
North Sunshine lost to Tarneit 15.12 (102)-4.14 (38).
