ALBURY overcame some early magic from North Albury youngster Kristian Cary and poor goal-kicking to storm to a 40-point win at Albury Sportsground on Saturday.
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Cary set the Hopper crowd alight with three brilliant first-term goals before the Tiger juggernaut rolled into action and clinched a seventh successive Anzac Day victory.
It would have been another blow-out had the reigning premier converted more of their 36 scoring shots.
Albury co-coach Chris Hyde said he couldn’t fault his players commitment but conceded they lacked polish in front of goal.
“It was a good contest,” Hyde said.
“I thought our boys were pretty strong at the contest, as were North Albury, but we thought if we hung in there for long enough the tables would turn.
“I think the scoring shots were 36 to 16 and inside 50s 54 to 38 so we definitely dominated the game at times but just weren’t able to put it on the scoreboard.
“That’s something we will work on.”
Albury came out breathing fire with star Tiger Brayden O’Hara making an early statement by crashing into Lachie Taylor-Nugent in the opening minute in a collision that saw the Hopper taken from the field with a shoulder injury.
But North Albury recovered from the early barrage thanks to some brilliant goal-kicking from Cary.
He slotted three for the term, including a team lifting major after the quarter-time siren, to give the visitors a 10-point advantage at the change.
Disaster struck at the five-minute-mark of the second quarter when Cary was assisted from the ground with a knee injury which appeared to zap some of the life out of the young line-up.
Although Cary returned to the fray strapped up after half-time, he was restricted to playing deep in attack and was unable to exert the same influence.
Albury kicked 2.6 to 0.1 in the second term with captain Luke Packer leading a tight-checking defence and Joel Mackie, O’Hara and Dean Polo creating havoc with brute strength in the midfield.
Another positive for the Tigers was the form of youngster Jim Grills on debut.
The silky left-footer, who missed last season due to a knee reconstruction, kicked two goals and showed enough to suggest that he will be a regular member of the ladder leader’s team.
Dangerous Hopper pair Kris Holman and Jordan Harrington were unable to have an impact due to defensive pressure from the Tigers.
North Albury went just over a quarter without scoring a goal despite workmanlike performances from Ricky Whitehead, Dan Leslie and Hunter Lloyd.
Lloyd held Albury spearhead Setanta o’hAilpin to two goals and consistently bombed the ball into the centre square with his prodigious kicking from full-back.
The bad news for opposition teams is that Albury will only get stronger with Hyde (hamstring), Jay Koehler (hamstring) and Luke Daly (knee) all chances of returning after next weekend’s bye.