Sunbury Lions have made sure there was no repeat of the previous result against North Ballarat City by all but sealing third spot in the Ballarat Football League.
Left to rue a poor third-quarter last time the two teams met, Lions coach Rick Horwood said his players had made a real focus on not making the same mistakes.
With their leaders to the fore, the Lions were in control on the scoreboard in the first half.
While they lost the third quarter, this time it was only by three points, allowing them to maintain a four-goal buffer.
The Lions finished the job off in the final quarter for a 19.10 (124)-13.7 (85) win.
Horwood said it was a good, four-quarter performance.
“The third quarter has been our Achilles heel and there’s been a big focus on that,” he said.
“We wanted to redeem ourselves from six weeks ago. Our leaders led really well in an even spread. We didn’t have a bad player.”
Alik Magin and ruckman David Kovacevic were the best two players on the ground, with Magin awarded his fifth straight best-on-ground performance.
Horwood lauded the job done by Adam Short in restricting league leading goalkicker Derick Micallef to three goals.
Jesse McInneny kicked five goals and Jack Landt kicked four.
Horwood said the Lions came out of the game with no injuries and would have a hard task at selection times in coming weeks.
In good news, damage to Grant Valles’ hand wasn’t as bad as expected and he is looking at being back for the first round of the finals.
The Lions, who face Darley in the final round, sit in third place, a game and percentage ahead of North Ballarat City.
But they have seen first-hand how big percentage swings in the final round can have a big impact.
The Devils, last year’s premiers, need a win in the final round to play finals.
“We need to make sure we focus on winning the game this week and not focus on finals,” Horwood said.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves and it won’t be easy against Darley. We could be playing them two weeks in a row.”
The Lions’ reserves side also sits third on the ladder.
