By Lance Jenkinson
Deer Park coach Marc Bullen has described the tactics used by St Albans as “boring” during his side’s 62-point victory in the Western Region Football League division 1 at Kings Park Reserve on Saturday.
Bullen took the extraordinary step of implementing a team rule midway through the game that no player can kick longer than 30 metres inside the forward half to combat the flood of players that Saints coach Brad Murphy had occupying their defensive 50.
In the first half, the Lions were playing into St Albans’ hands by going deep into the forward line, only to see the ball repelled time and again.
The Lions led by seven at half-time, but were not getting value for their entries, so Bullen deployed the hard and fast rule.
“We prepared for the opposition to maintain possession and try and make it a neutral game,” Bullen said.
“At one stage I counted about nine St Albans defenders.
“They played their ruckman behind the ball, their wingers went back, they played four forwards at certain parts of the day, so it is tough to score.
“You’ve got to be able to adapt and I actually put in a policy that you couldn’t kick the footy over 30 metres inside the forward half.
“We found some better avenues to goal instead of just kicking it into our talls and having a split ball contest.”
Murphy’s tactics are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they worked somewhat for six quarters against the two premiership favourites.
His St Albans team, which is 3-12 in a tough season, came within a whisker of upsetting Altona in a seven-point loss the week before and frustrated the life out of Deer Park for a half to force Bullen into plan B.
You can put Bullen down as someone who is not a fan of Murphy’s tactics.
“I don’t think any of the top-five coaches will have a game plan the way that Brad Murphy had on the weekend in the finals,” Bullen said.
“I didn’t really take too much out of it because the game plan that he brought to the table was pretty boring.”
Deer Park’s willingness to lower the eyes and hit up targets worked better in the second half.
The Lions eventually wore the St Albans defence down and began to get the game on their terms with an 11-goal-to-four second half.
Deer Park had a good spread of goalkickers, led by four each to Kevin Klix and Chris Stewart, and three to Jase Perkins. The dynamic Kwame McHarg was best for the Lions, along with Dyson Stevens and Mark Galea.
Deer Park, sitting top of the ladder in search of a sixth consecutive flag, will host Caroline Springs at John McLeod Oval on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sunshine was officially knocked out of the finals race after a 73-point loss to Hoppers Crossing.
Albion put up a good fight against Spotswood before losing by 43 points.
Caroline Springs went down to Altona by 47.
In division 2, Albanvale was competitive for a half before losing by 66 points to Parkside. Daniel Bartolo kicked four goals for the Cobras.
In division 3, Sunshine Heights enjoyed a 40-point win over Braybrook to keep its mathematical finals chances alive.
An injury-hit North Sunshine found the going tough in an 80-point loss to Laverton.
