Railways take care of Albany after six goals from star Matt Palfrey but win comes at a significant cost

Defending premiers Railways are hopeful they have not lost Kleemann medallist and star midfielder Logan Stubber for the rest of the season after a costly win over Albany on Saturday. The Tigers recorded their eighth win of the Great Southern Football League season in impressive fashion, downing the Sharks by 38 points despite having no fit players on the bench in the final term. Logan Stubber was the biggest casualty with a broken finger that required surgery while they lost defender Mitch Green and key forward Zak Hortin to hamstring injuries and Jake Hunter was sidelined with a bad cork. Tigers coach Mark Bayliss said they would wait for further advice on Stubber’s injury but believed his season was not over yet. “It was a bad dislocation and a couple of hairline fractures,” Bayliss said. “He’ll be out for a few weeks but we’ll get him back. “The second quarter set the game up for us, we put score on the board and limited their opportunities and in the end it was a good win with no one on the bench.” The defending premiers are closing in on a top-two finish and finals double chance after the 16.13 (109) to 10.11 (71) win at Retravision Stadium. The Tigers led at every change and set up their win with a powerful six-goal second term. Matt Palfrey showed his class yet again, the talented former WAFL player producing another dominant display. Two goals from Palfrey and singles from Stubber brothers Bodhi and Logan and small forward Jake Hunter helped the Tigers to a one-point lead over the Sharks at quarter-time. Palfrey added a third in the second term, Logan Stubber kicked three majors while Isaac Williams and Mohit Jaggi also kicked truly as the Tigers stamped their authority on the contest. The six goals from the visitors were only halted by a Robbie Lee major but the Sharks trailed by 39 points at the long break. Star forwards Brett Peake and Matt Martin came to life in the third stanza as the Sharks got back into the contest. Peake booted three goals and Martin slotted two terrific set shots as the Sharks kicked five goals to two and trimmed the deficit to 20 points. Palfrey kicked two steadying goals in the third and he added his sixth early in the fourth to stretch the visitors’ advantage to 26 points. The Tigers kicked the only two goals of the fourth, keeping the Sharks to only two behinds as they moved two games clear of their opponents in the top two as a result. Green and Logan Stubber (four goals) had a big impact on the result before their respective injuries. Palfrey was the most influential player on the ground with six goals. Wingman Dylan Schorer and midfielders Jayden Scott and Joel Want were also solid contributors. Two poor quarters were again costly for the Sharks but they were best served by Peake with four goals. Lee and Cameron Jones both worked hard. Peake was outstanding inside the forward 50, kicking 4.4 while having plenty of impact higher up the ground. “That’s why we are not in the top two,” Sharks coach Jamie Ramm said. “The second quarter was the killer, our third quarter was one of our best quarters of the year but any game you get six goals down is a big task. “We had nine scoring shots in the first quarter so we missed some opportunities as well.”