Harper Sercombe
An epic grand final awaits Albion in the Western Region Football League division 2.
The Cats overcame last week’s disappointing loss to Parkside as they defeated Newport in a tough and tight battle at Pennell Reserve.
On the back foot early, the Cats found themselves down by 14 points at quarter time, but they were up for the fight, kicking three majors in the second, while only allowing the Panthers one behind.
The Panthers made their way back into the contest during the third quarter as they took a four point lead into the last.
The game began to crack open for the final term, with the Cats adding four foals to the Panthers three with the Cats doing enough to seal a 10.10 (70)-10.6 (66) win.
After 11 years out of finals, a grand final berth is the outcome of a lot of hard work and dedication according to coach Blake Richards.
“The players were good enough yesterday [Saturday], just, but we got there,” he said.
“I said to the group that our time will come and when it does come we just have to score and then shut them down once they’ve got the footy.”
With the reserves also in the grand final Richards and his coaching team are bound to have headaches at the selection table.
The reserves will face Wyndhmvale in the grand final.
“There’s quality footballers that are still missing out in the twos at the moment,” Richards said. “We do have pretty good depth.
“That’s probably the reason we are where we are, we don’t have many stars, we do have a couple of really good players but it’s a lot of depth and a lot of decent footballers here.”
The depth in players without a standout has been evident in their spread of goal kickers in games. This was again on show yesterday with eight players kicking a major. Leading goal kicker Ben Doll led the way with three.
With the grand final now the sole focus for the Cats, recovery is their first priority.
“We just need to concentrate on recovery and getting our bodies right,” Richards said. “We’re not going to get much fitter at the moment.”
The Cats will face Parkside in the grand final.
After losing to the Magpies in last week’s qualifying final, 7.4(46)-4.6 (30), the Cats have confidence in their ability to get the job done in what is guaranteed to be a fierce contest.
“They’re very physical but so are we,” Richards said.
“They’re defensively minded which we are as well, so it was a pretty low scoring game last time and I’m pretty sure it will be again.
“It’s just about those little moments in the game and the little things that we need to improve on.
“We’ve been slowly and slowly getting there with that stuff so I think we should be able to have a red hot crack.”
