Tara Murray
It’s been a frustrating start to the Western Football League division 2 season for Albanvale.
Last season’s division 3 runners-up, the Cobras have let slip a couple of games they shouldn’t have in the first part of the season.
Coach Ange Messina said things could have been looking a bit better.
“We dropped a couple of games that we should have won,” he said. “There were matches we thought where we were the better team on the day and couldn’t win.
“We couldn’t take our chances. It’s been an underwhelming start, we’re 2-4 but had it been 4-2 we would have been in fifth.”
Messina said for large parts of their games they are playing some good football, it’s a matter of doing it for four quarters.
He said they had been unlucky at times as well.
“It’s just been structures falling down at the wrong times,” he said. “There have been times we’ve been competitive but haven’t kicked goals when we’ve needed them.
“Against the Suns we kicked 1.7 in the third quarter, we’re not taking opportunities when they present.”
Messina, who is in his first season coaching the club, said they would get better the longer the season goes.
He said they were still learning to play his game style and he and the group were learning about each other.
He is enjoying being back coaching.
“We’ll be better in the second third of the season, we’ll see some improvement,” he said.
“I’m loving being back. The boys are tremendous and I’m an ex-player, ex-reserves coach at the club.
“I’m loving my footy more than I have in the last eight years I’ve been coaching. Hopefully we can get some reward for effort.”
Messina said heading into the season they wanted to be pushing for the top part of the ladder.
He knows that some of the sides that were in the higher division last season, are sitting well above them.
“We certainly knew it would be tough with the division 2 sides but are a bit stronger than us,” he said.
“We wanted to aim for that fifth-sixth spot and the opportunity to target and play finals footy.
“The top four sides look like they are locked up at the moment.”
The Cobras were set to face the Western Rams on Saturday, after deadline.
It was the first time that the two teams had faced each other.
The Cobras just managed to get over the line, winning 9.9 (63)-5.7 (37).
“We don’t have much IQ about them,” Messina said before the match.
“There’s things we need to correct and correct quickly,” he said. “We need to do that rather than focus outwards we will look at them before worrying about others.”
