GSFL 2024: Week-by-week approach remains the focus for undefeated Albany side, says skipper Tait McLean

Albany overcame goal-kicking woes and a defiant Railways to notch a 32-point win at Retravision Stadium on Saturday night, marking their fourth straight win of the 2024 Great Southern Football League campaign. The Sharks had numerous opportunities to blow last year’s grand final opponents away throughout their 9.19 (73) to 6.5 (41) victory, but errant shots allowed the Tigers to stay within striking distance for most of the match. However, buoyed by the sheer volume of opportunities they created, the Sharks surged ahead in the second half, scoring six goals to the visitors’ three. Kaleb Germain (one goal) was excellent in a resounding team performance and was awarded the match ball in the Belt Up Round after being judged best on ground. Sharks captain Tait McLean said while it was pleasing to chalk up a win against each side to begin their title defence, his team remained steadfast on a week-by-week approach. “In pre-season, it was really that ‘let’s go around again’ but then as we started playing games, we’ve tried to just keep it a bit more week to week,” McLean said. “That’s what worked for us last year so we’re just worried about what happens week to week, uncaring of opposition and hopefully it all sorts itself out towards the back end of the year.” The Tigers sparked a terrific comeback in the third when Bailin Curtis booted his first before Jaxon Lombardini scored directly out of the next centre stoppage, cutting the margin to just four points. Sharks’ Bryce Blaszkow, Aiden Clark and Brett Peake (two goals) quickly quashed any chance of a spirited Tigers fightback, booting a major each in the third. Things started to spiral for the visitors when co-captain Jayden Scott was shown a yellow card for rough conduct, giving Brock Anning his first goal. Sharks’ Isaac Baum was superb in the front half for the Sharks, finishing with 1.3, while Brett Peake was extremely dangerous inside forward 50 but struggled to finish his team’s work, ending with 2.4. Like his teammates, Bailey Taylor was sensational across the ground but finished with three behinds, while Harvey Taylor, Collier (two goals) and Clark were all strong contributors for the hosts. “You take the wins when they come,” McLean said. “We were worried we weren’t kicking that many goals, but at the end of the day a win’s a win,” McLean said. “Getting the opportunity sometimes is the hardest part. Goalkicking should be something that we can fix up pretty easily. “(The focus now) probably is how our depth looks. That middle section of the year you might start getting a few injuries, so it might test our depth a bit more.” Earlier, the Sharks’ wayward goal kicking was matched by the Tigers’ sloppy repeated inside-50 entries, but the Sharks held a seven-point margin at the long break. Tigers’ player-coach Bodhi Stubber said his side struggled to withstand the Sharks’ pressure but praised his side’s effort in its second loss of the season. “I thought they were very good early and their pressure was outstanding and made us turn the footy over a lot,” he said. “Ill-discipline didn’t help us and our inside 50s weren’t great.” “I thought our young players had a crack and we could have given up and got blown away, but I thought our back line held up well.” Ryley Valli was sublime for the visitors with three first-half majors, while Lombardini was industrious in their front half and Leighton Smith toiled extremely hard in the back line alongside Matt France. The loss marks successive weeks the Tigers have struggled to generate goal-scoring opportunities from their inside 50s, but while conceding it is an area of weakness, Stubber has faith his side can turn it around. “It (inside-50s) is something we need to work on, but at the same time we’ve got a lot of different guys running through the midfield and a lot of youth,” he said. “It is only early in the season, so I’m not worried about it at this stage. “It will click eventually, so the more we play together the better it will get.”