By Lance Jenkinson
St Albans recovered from an uncertain start to overrun Caroline Springs in a 15-point victory in the Western Region Football League division 1 at Town Centre Oval on Saturday.
A rough opening term saw the Saints trail by 25 points at quarter-time and they appeared a long way off the form that had seem them impress in the opening two rounds.
However, the Saints quickly regained their mojo, banging on six goals to one in the second quarter to get back on track and on their way to a second win in three starts under new coach Perry Meka.
In a sign of trust building between the coach and his players, Meka stayed calm in the face of adversity at quarter-time and empowered his players to believe they could get back into the contest without needing to resort to shock treatment.
“It was quite calm to be honest,” Meka said.
“I summed up to myself, do I barrel them or do I keep them calm?
“I just went with the calm thing and said we need to even up the scores by half-time, we need to fight our way back.
“Let’s not go over the top and try too many things, just kick one, get some momentum back, drag the score back and play a bit of tempo footy and play our style.
“That’s what they did and it worked out OK.”
However, Meka will not let his players forget about their poor first quarter.
There were some disappointing aspects of
St Albans’ start that will need to be addressed.
Given his players reaction, there might not need to be too much time devoted to stressing the point.
“A few of the players came up to me after the game and said that if we play our style of footy, we can hit the scoreboard, but when we go away from that and run forward and do things that is not in our game plan, opposition teams will score against us,” Meka said.
St Albans kicked 11 of the last 16 goals of the game.
The Saints should have won more comfortably, but their return of 1.10 from 11 last-quarter scoring shots was disappointing.
“You’ve got to give Caroline Springs credit, they put pressure on us and they didn’t give up,” Meka said.
The key to St Albans’ comeback was getting the stoppages on their own terms.
The Saints began to win the clearances as soon as Abraham Kur was thrust into the ruck.
PHOTO GALLERY: Caroline Springs vs St Albans
Meka bravely moved No. 1 ruckman David Kovacevic forward and allowed Kur to do the bulk of the ruck work.
“Their ruckman was similar to ‘Kova’, a body-on-body ruckman, so we threw ‘Abs’ in there and he ended up jumping over the top of his opponent,” Meka said.
“Abs matched up better for us in the ruck and ‘Kova’ took some grabs and got us going up forward, so it worked out well.”
Shylo Smith capped a stellar game on the ball for St Albans with two goals.
Matthew Gundry was effervescent off half-back, while Sam Peet was a target in attack.
Ben Said was a livewire in attack, finishing with 5.6 from 11 scoring shots.
Meka was proud of St Albans’ reaction when its back was against the wall.
“They fought back from adversity and got a win, which is exactly what we asked,” he said.
St Albans will face Werribee Districts in a clash between two 2-1 sides at Kings Park Reserve on Saturday.
In other division 1 games, Sunshine romped to a 70-point win over Point Cook at Saltwater Reserve.
Deer Park cruised to a 230-point win over Albion with Jase Perkins kicking 10 goals and Jack Redpath and Mark Galea adding seven each.
Altona pipped Spotswood by 10 points, while Hoppers Crossing overcame Werribee Districts by 21.
MORE WRFL NEWS
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/albanvale-sees-off-sting-of-defeat/
