Altona debutant James Sadler impresses in win over Werribee Districts

A debutant who looked like he had “been playing senior footy for three or four years” was at the centre of Altona’s shock win at the weekend. Coach Travis Varcoe gives his verdict on the performance.

Luke Whatman in action for Altona. Photo: Local Legends Photography.

People outside of the Altona Football Club might not have known the name James Sadler before Saturday.

But they do now.

In his senior debut, Sadler kicked two goals and was named among the Vikings’ best as they became the first team to beat Werribee Districts this season in the Western Football League division one competition.

Sadler is in his first year of senior footy after an impressive under-18 season in 2023 where he finished runner-up in the club’s best-and-fairest.

Altona senior coach Travis Varcoe said the teenager had been doing the “hard yards in the development team” and deserved the opportunity.

“It’s one of those things where someone looking on the outside probably says ‘where has he come from’ but we’ve been seeing him build towards this opportunity,” Varcoe said.

“He’s done all the right things and we’d been seeing it for weeks on end in the development team at 12pm. Watching him, people might have thought he’d been playing senior footy for three or four years.

“It’s nice to have guys who can come in and make the most of his opportunity. He did everything we asked of him, he showed great maturity in managing his emotions.

“It’s a different game and he handled himself really well.”

The difficult conditions which presented themselves on Saturday made scoring hard to come by with neither side kicking a goal in the second or third quarters.

Altona kicked three to none in the final quarter to come away with a vital four points.

Joel Menadue in action for Altona. Photo: Local Legends Photography.

“We had to battle,” Varcoe said.

“The boys stuck to the task we have gave them. It was a real arm wrestle all day, it came down to the finer details in the end.

“They’ve (Werribee) been the benchmark of the competition for the last couple of years and this should give us a lot of confidence.”

Locking away a place in the top-five is now Altona’s biggest challenge for the last month of the season.

They sit in fifth place on 24 points with Spotswood behind by just .52 per cent.

Hoppers Crossing is half-a-game ahead in fourth spot.

“It’s a really great thing for the competition,” Varcoe said of the competition’s evenness.

“All we are doing is giving ourselves an opportunity. Saturday pretty much became an eight-point game.

“It’s nice to see the boys get some reward. The win-loss record at the start of the season could have played on their minds but they’ve continued to work away.

“Results have turned and now we can really start to build on it.”

Colby Redpath, Kosta Arapidis, Jay Hansen, Luke Whatman and Billy Minett were named among the leading performers for Altona.

Callan Gilboy was best for Districts.