The Pies trailed by 37 points at the 16-minute mark of the second quarter, just minutes after Albury’s Jessy Wilson was charged with striking Zac Leitch and sent off for 15 minutes.

Albury was kicking with the strong breeze, but the home side managed to stem the flow and land the last three of the term to go in 22 points down.

“We really dug deep in the second half, ‘Stoney’ (coach Dean Stone) really revved us up and we probably didn’t play the way we wanted to in the first half,” defender and Victoria Country rep Dylan Van Berlo said.

“We went away from our structure, we kicked down the line too much and they outnumbered us.

“After half-time, we brought it in-board (infield) and that’s when we started to win more ball.”

The Pies kicked four goals seven to two straight with the breeze, but just couldn’t grab the lead.