Newport secures historic finals place with win over Sunshine

Newport secured a piece of club history with victory over Sunshine on Saturday with coach Josh Russo giving an insight into his side’s challenges this season.

Newport will play finals footy for the first time in Division 2 of the WRFL.

The Panthers secured their place in the top-four on Saturday with a 11.15 (81) to 10.9 (69) victory over Sunshine, the same side they’re likely to face in the first final.

It comes in a historic season for the club who introduced the new nickname at the end of last season.

Newport has faced plenty of challenges throughout the season with injuries to key players once appearing to hamper their finals prospects.

Coach Josh Russo congratulated his group on how they had managed to push through adversity.

“It’s disheartening when you see your mates go down with long-term injuries, but there has been a real energy from the playing group to show that they were capable of playing good footy,” he said.

“We’ve always had the belief that whoever was coming into the side would be able to come in and do a job for us. It’s been an up and down year for us but the boys deserve it.

“We’ve been able to play a few younger guys consistently in the last three or four weeks and they’ve been a breath of fresh air for us, they bring such great energy and willingness to every contest.”

Khaled Saoud. Picture: Valeriu Campan

In an evenly poised contest against Sunshine, the Panthers finished the stronger of the two sides with three goals to one in the final quarter.

Nayef Hamad continued his sensational form with another best on ground display while Belal Mesto, Hussein Hasna, Bilal Chehade, Belal Abou-Eid and Munir El Houli were also impressive.

Mesbah Hawli also chipped in with a couple of goals.

Russo credited his side’s back six for the victory with Sunshine dominating through the middle of the ground.

“They got a lot of first use from Murray Boyd but our defenders were phenomenal with how they dealt with the ball,” he said.

“Any time there was a 50-50 ball, I felt we were in a good position to win it. When we were in control of the footy, we weren’t mucking around with it and just got it forward.”

Newport will now play Braybrook and Parkside in the last fortnight of the season.