After going so close to ending Deer Park’s dynasty last season, Sunshine Kangaroos entered the new Western Region Football League division 1 campaign with great expectations.
But they didn’t live up to external hype or the internal benchmarks in a rough opening month of the season.
Kangaroos’ coach Brendan Hallinan knew the spotlight would be firmly placed on his team after the slow start.
While injuries were one of the reasons the Kangaroos managed just one win from their opening five starts, Hallinan knew a bit of the spark that made the team so good last season had been missing.
He undertook a review, thrashing out what was going right and what needed improving.
The reaction has been positive, with the Kangaroos winning their past two matches, including a hard fought 13-point win over Albion at JR Parsons Reserve on Saturday.
“We weren’t playing near our best football, injuries aside, and we needed to get back to what stood us in good stead last year – and that was our defensive efforts and our teamwork,” he said.
“We’re happy with how we’ve been tracking the past few weeks and hopefully that form continues.”
Sunshine was in a spot of bother at half-time against Albion.
The Kangaroos trailed by 14 points, despite having the lion’s share of forward half possession.
“Our stats showed us that we were off the charts with how many forward 50 entries we had, but we just chopped the footy up and weren’t clean with the ball,” Hallinan said.
“Out of respect to Albion, their pressure was really good and they made us pay a little bit for our sloppy decisions.
“I also think a lot of it was our unforced turnovers. We just wanted to be too cute with the ball and try to do too much, but I still thought the boys were never out of control of the game.”
Sunshine came out in the third quarter and went bang, bang, bang. The Kangaroos piled on six goals to nil in the term to take the game out of reach of the home side.
“It was one of our better quarters [for the season],” Hallinan said.
Albion showed some fight late on, but Sunshine held on to pick up its third win.
Matthew Hutchesson and Jesse McInneny were hugely influential for the Kangaroos.
Hutchesson was the coach’s best for his tireless work in the midfield.
“He’s hit a bit of a purple patch,” Hallinan said. “His defensive work is what drives him and he was at his best today.”
McInneny’s insertion into the No.1 big man position allows the rest of the talls to play in their familiar roles.
“We can’t under-estimate how big of an inclusion Jesse McInenny has been to us in the ruck,” Hallinan said.
“He structures us up really well and he was absolutely brilliant today.”
Josh Linton, Liam Cavanagh and Brenton Quinn kicked three goals apiece for the Kangaroos.
Albion (2-5) fell to third-last on the ladder, while Sunshine (3-4) continued its climb into sixth.
Elsewhere in division 1, Jase Perkins kicked eight goals as Deer Park picked apart Caroline Springs to win by 140 points, St Albans sunk to a 52-point defeat at home to Spotswood and Hoppers Crossing kicked a wayward 12.32 in a 53-point win over Wyndhamvale. Werribee Districts won the top-of-the-table clash with Altona by 49 points to remain the only side undefeated in the top flight.
In division 2, Albanvale had a 48-point loss to North Footscray, while in division 3, Sunshine Heights had a 44-point win over Laverton and North Sunshine could only manage four goals in a 102-point loss to Tarneit.
