Tara Murray
The Sunbury Lions continue to tick the boxes in the Ballarat Football League, having already reached their wins total from last season.
Sunbury came away with the points against Redan in the battle of the Lions at Clarke Oval on Saturday, to notch up its fifth win of the season.
It wasn’t the prettiest win for Sunbury with some inconsistent football, but for Sunbury coach Travis Hodgson it’s another move in the right direction.
“We set ourselves to try and double our wins,” Hodgson said. “You score mini wins along the way and it’s about achieving some things we didn’t do last year.
“Today [Saturday] is another one of them. We lost to them [Redan] here last year and we hadn’t beaten them since 2018.
“Be beat Bacchus Marsh away last week which we didn’t do last year and we hadn’t beaten them at Bacchus Marsh since 2014.
“We’re ticking some boxes which we haven’t been able to tick and it’s reinforcing that we have improved.”
On Saturday, Sunbury started slowly with some poor goal kicking proving costly.
Three late goals in the second quarter kep Sunbury in the game at half time.
After the break, Sunbury was the better side and were able to kick eight goals to three to win, 13.12 (90)-9.9 (63).
Hodgson said with such a young group they were still not putting together 100 good minutes of football.
“We wasted some opportunities that would have made the game a big tighter in the first half,” he said.
“Thankfully three late goals just before half time keep us close enough to bring something into half time.
“We played the way we wanted to play, our run and carry across the ground to start the season half.
“When we look like a pretty good side when we do that. Redan had a few out today, they have a really long injury list, for them to hang around and come down here and hang around for as long as they did a really good effort.”
Leigh Brennan and Jake Sutton kicked four goals apiece for Sunbury. It could have been a much bigger day for Sutton, who missed several shots early.
“He kicked 4.7 last week and his radar off early again,” Hodgson said. “He’s a good player and getting his hand on the footy and getting the ball the first part.”
Riley Miller continued his good form and was named Sunbury’s best along with Harrison Minton-Connell, Corey Mobilio, who did the job on Isaac Grant, and Rivva Karpany.
Hodgson said they made the decision to move Karpany into the middle of the ground to try and get a bit more impact out of him.
They’ve also moved Cody Brand from the forward line into defence in the last couple of weeks.
Hodgson said this is the first time they’ve had the flexibility and depth to be able to do that.
The win moves Sunbury to 5-2 and fifth on the ladder. Sunbury is only percentage behind the two teams above them.
Hodgson said they would have some good players in Tyson Lever, Mitch Lewis, Jack Hannett and James Cree return in the next month to strengthen the squad.
Sunbury has this weekend off due to the King’s Birthday before facing Ballarat the following week.
