Border Mail |
WHEN Josh Porter took mark of the season in the opening minute, Wangaratta had every reason to be optimistic.
Add that screamer with the game’s first three goals and a near scoreless quarter from Albury, and things were starting to look good for the Pies.
They kicked five of the game’s last six goals, too.
That was surely enough for Wangaratta to spring an upset, right?
Wrong.
While Wangaratta showed plenty early and plenty late, 15 goals in between from the Tigers ensured Saturday’s contest at Norm Minns Oval was anything but close, let alone an upset.
With just eight premiership players in the team, following Lloyd Shepherd’s late withdrawal, Albury fielded its most inexperienced team in years.
It didn’t matter as the Tigers ran out 53-point winners in one of the strangest games of the season.
Wangaratta kicked the first three, Albury kicked 15 on the trot before the Pies kicked the first five goals of the final term.
Only a late goal from Lonnie Hampton, who starred in the win, broke that cycle.
Lavington was furious when Hampton was lured to the Albury Sportsground at the end of 2011.
Now we’re starting to find out why.
Hampton’s class, poise and immense pressure up forward has given Albury a dynamic they haven’t had in years.
He was exceptional at the weekend, and has been all season.
Will Smith, meanwhile, destroyed James Wong.
Wong inspired early, kicking two of the game’s first three goals and setting up several chances.
But he didn’t win a contest for the rest of the game after quarter-time.
With Smith, Hampton and co-coach Chris Hyde leading from the front, Albury got away from the Pies on the back of a nine-goal second term.
“Our pressure and intensity around the footy lifted and that was what got us going,” Hyde said.
“We think that if we bring that to the table we can start kicking goals and that’s what happened.”
Wangaratta coach Mark Knobel admitted he was far from satisfied at quarter-time, despite the promising start.
“There was no scoreboard pressure,” Knobel said.
“We had a lot of inside 50s but there were a lot of points and kicks out on the full.
“I felt we should have kicked seven or eight goals in that quarter, personally.
“They were always going to come back and play well at some stage.
“You can win all the stats boxes you like, whether it be clearances, stoppages or whatever but if you don’t kick the goals you don’t win.”
In a further boost for the Tigers, Joel Mackie, Matt Fowler, Luke Packer, Josh Gaynor and Shepherd will all return after the interleague bye.
Andy Carey and Matt Shir are still about a month away.
