Tara Murray
Sunshine keeps piling up the wins but it still has plenty of work to do in the Western Football League division 2 competition.
The Kangaroos haven’t lost since their first match of the season against Albion and have since had several big margin results.
On Saturday, they had one of those against West Footscray, but Kangaroos coach Ben Chapman said the result didn’t show the true nature of the match.
The Kangaroos got the win, 28.21 (189)-8.10 (58) after leading by 90 points at quarter time.
“The margin looks like one way traffic, but the second half was disappointing,” he said. “It’s difficult when you are in control of the game and trying to stay engaged.
“Credit to West Footscray they never gave up and played some good footy and kicked five goals in the final quarter.”
With an average winning margin of 162 you could be forgiven for thinking will just Kangaroos think it’s just going to happen.
Chapman said they had a really driven group which made it easier trying to keep them engaged.
“We’ve got some competition for spots at the moment, it keeps a fair chunk of the group on their toes,” he said.
“We’ve been working on what we can control and get the process right, the result will be what it is.
“We’ve changed the way we go about training as well, made it more scenario based as the majority of games we don’t know a lot about the opposition.
“We’re not worried about the opposition.”
Nathan Carroll kicked 11 goals for the Kangaroos to take his total to 55 goals for the season in eight games.
Chapman said Matthew Cravino was good in the midfield, while Kahlan Williams, Mark Mazzeo, Luke Buttigieg and Thomas McIntosh were the other standards.
The win takes the Kangaroos to 7-1, third on the ladder behind Albion and Wyndhamvale which are undefeated.
Chapman said while they’re happy the process is only just beginning.
“There’s processes we have to get right more than results per se,” he said. “We haven’t lost a game since the first game, which is pleasing, but we still have a fair bit of work to do and a lot of improvement in us.
The Kangaroos get a week off with a competition wide bye due to the long weekend. Chapman said they would look to freshen up the group ahead of the second half of the season.
“We’re nearly at the halfway mark, we’ll assess where we’re at and reset for the back half of the season.”
The Kangaroos have a good challenge after the bye, facing Wyndhamvale. It will be the Falcons biggest test this season.
In other results, Albanvale upset Braybrook, 15.9 (99)-14.4 (88), while Sunshine Heights lost to Wyndhamvale, 18.17 (125)-4.4 (28).
North Sunshine had a tough day against the Suns, losing 32.13 (205)-2.5 (17), while Albion beat Newport, 16.12 (108)-6.6 (42).
