Harper Sercombe
West Footscray’s 2023 campaign is over following a preliminary final loss to Albanvale.
The Roosters faced the Cobras at Hansen Reserve on Saturday in a final match of two tales, with the first half being a tight contest before the dam walls burst open in the second.
The game started tight with just two goals separating the sides at quarter time. When half time rolled around it was just nine points the difference.
However, an eight goal third term from the Cobras stretched the lead out to 52 points at three quarter time.
The goal kicking continued into the last quarter, with the Cobras adding another five majors to give them a 65 point victory.
The Cobras won 20.11 (131)-9.12 (66).
For the Roosters, Chris Long, Nathan Smith and Nicholas Howard kicked two majors each. Howard was also the Roosters best in the clash.
Michael Oddie, Matthew Turcinovich and Hayden Bray were single goal scorers.
Roosters coach Troy Beamond said while he is disappointed, the season has been a positive one after coming down from division 2 in the off season having not won a game last year.
“It was really disappointing,” he said. “I thought we were pretty sore after our game last week against Sunshine Heights.
“We had four changes from that game, and a six day break. I don’t want to make excuses, but I thought even though we started OK we were still pretty flat. So I think that took a toll.
“We should have probably been ahead at half time, I thought. We were eight points down but we missed three real sodas of goals in the second quarter.
“I was a little bit concerned, even at half time in the rooms, even though we were in a relatively good position, we just seemed tired and it was a concern then but obviously we would have liked to see a bit more fight.
“Overall, to get to where we’ve come from, the club’s in a really good space and it’s a successful season and now we’re going to build from that.”
To build on that Beamond said it will come from a mixture of natural growth and recruitment. This season was Beamond’s first in charge.
“We had 10 or 11 guys who were 21 or under playing in the senior side,” he said.
“There’s not too many division 2 or 3 sides in the WRFL that have that youth, plus our under-18s in a grand final next week.
“So there’s a lot of growth that’s going to come through there.
“I don’t think we need to recruit a heap of players but we need to target a few areas to sort of solidify where we want to be.
“In our midfield group we’re a really small group in terms of size, so we really need one or two big bodied midfielders so that’s what we’re going to target.”
Albanvale will face the Suns in the grand final on Saturday.
