North Sunshine has claimed bragging rights over neighbours Sunshine Heights in a hard-fought seven-point win in the Western Region Football League division 3 local derby at Dempster Park on Saturday.
The Roadrunners came back from 13 points down at half time, overrunning the Heights with a scintillating eight-goal-to-four second half.
Roadrunners coach Brett Kennerley was proud of his team’s efforts to overcome a rival on a day that three of his starting onballers were unavailable.
“It was a cracking match, so it was a good win,” he said.
“A tough fought contest that could’ve gone either way, but we got the chocolates, so we’re pretty happy with that.”
North Sunshine was not fussed about being down on the scoreboard at half time, as it felt they had momentum of the game.
The Roadrunners went into the main break with a woeful 1.8 on the board and just needed to work on their forward line efficiency.
They readjusted their patterns in the second half, finding better avenues to goal and it showed as they piled on 8.2 to run out victors.
“The reality was, we had a lot more of the football in the first half, but we just used it really badly,” Kennerley said.
“The message that went back to the guys was let’s stick to our game plan, but let’s improve in the areas that we know we’re not getting right.
“We had 11 turnovers inside our forward 50 in the first quarter and that’s horrible, so we were doing the work to get it there, but were just a bit dirty getting it inside.
“Second half we played to our structure and looked for much better shots, cleaner shots.”
With North Sunshine’s long list of unavailable players, it opened up the door for some youngsters to take charge.
The Roadrunners’ best-on-ground was Thomas Rendle, who was thrust into a midfield role and excelled.
Rendle was one of the few players on the ground who did not have the luxury of a rest last weekend, but you would not have known it such was his incredible work rate.
“He’s just come back from under 19s interleague trip, but his metrics today would’ve been huge,” Kennerley said.
“He ran a lot of kilometres and was still up and about in that second half.
“It’s the first time I’ve actually used him in the midfield because I was missing my three best mids today and his use of the footy was good and his voice was good.”
The other youngster to impress was teenage ruckman Thiep Bol.
Bol was not only good in the air, but good at ground level and just a tackling machine.
“I thought he had a really good game the young bloke,” Kennerley said.
“His pressure at ground level was significant.
“He had about 12 tackles in the second half alone, which is pretty good for an 18 year old ruckman.
“I was really impressed with him.”
Darren Turner was North Sunshine’s leading goalkicker with three, while Bradwell Dick and Brenton Cooper snared two apiece.
For Sunshine Heights, Frank Staffieri was dangerous in attack with four goals, while James Vella capped a stand out game with a goal of his own.
North Sunshine, who has squared its season ledger at 3-3, has a big test against Tarneit on the road next Saturday, while one-win Sunshine Heights will host Laverton in a must-win game.
Meanwhile, Braybrook put up a good showing against top-of-the-ladder Wyndham Suns, leading at every change before running out of legs in the last quarter to lose by 36 points.
The Brookers, fourth with a 3-3 record, will visit second-placed Point Cook Centrals in what should be a cracking game this Saturday.
