FOOTBALL
ELECTION weekend dictated Albion to be the best Brimbank candidate in the running for the Western Region Football League division 1 title.
The Cats bared their claws in a comfortable 27-point win at JK Grant Reserve in Altona on Saturday to leave the finals campaign of rival Sunshine Kangaroos teetering on the brink.
Cats coach Paul Harrison was ecstatic to have taken a "big scalp" ahead of their second semi-final stoush with Spotswood at Chirnside Park in Werribee on Saturday.
"I thought we played like the second-top side should and beat them fairly comfortably," Harrison said.
"When the game was there to be won we played all over the top of them."
The Cats imposed themselves on the contest from the outset.
Their unwavering will to obtain first use of the ball at the clearances and keep up their defensive pressure in the forward half was a feature.
They went to quarter-time with a 16-point lead with the aid of a strong breeze.
The Kangaroos were on the back foot from the opening minutes when key man Keegan Powell went off with a game-ending injury.
The Cats took advantage, putting the Kangaroos defence under a mountain of pressure with Sam Stephens and Shaydon Bloomfield featuring prominently.
Stephens, a teenage sensation still eligible for the under-18s, was superb in a best-on-ground performance across half-forward.
With the Cats holding a three goal buffer out of the half-time break, the rising star picked up the ball tight on the boundary and booted a momentum-lifting goal to kick-start a six-goal-to-zip third term.
"That opened the floodgates a bit," Harrison said.
"It was a timely goal and it capped off a great game for him."
The Cats, inspired by the midfield work of Marcus Smith, Jayson Watts and ruckman James Philpot, blew the margin out to 10 goals at one point.
That was when they "turned off" in the words of Harrison.
The Kangaroos plastered over the cracks with a six-goal-to-one final term.
Perhaps the Cats had their minds elsewhere?
A date with the top-ranked Woodsmen will do that.
The experts have predicted a one-horse race to the premiership.
Harrison will relish the chance to lead his underdogs on the weekend.
"We'll give a good account of ourselves," he said.
"We've got to focus on our desired indicators. If they're up where they should be then we give ourselves a chance."
■Controversial home ground advantage was not enough for the Altona Vikings.
The hosts were eliminated from the division 1 finals race in a narrow seven-point defeat to St Albans at JK Grant Reserve on Sunday.
The Vikings were kicking themselves after keeping the Saints scoreless in the opening term and failing to capitalise
at the other end with just 1.8 in that period.
Saints coach Ian Denny said his side won a "war of attrition".
The Saints move on to the first semi-final where they meet the Sunshine Kangaroos at Chirnside Park in Werribee on Sunday.
Lance Jenkinson
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