WRFL: Tarneit overcomes Sunshine Heights in Division 3 clash

Tarneit scored its most important win of the 2022 season with a 153-point turnaround on Saturday with a new face impressing on debut after crossing from a rival club.

Be hard to play against.

Hate to lose.

Those are the words, Tarneit is aiming living by under new coach Brent Sheean.

The Titans broke through for their most important win of the season on Saturday to keep the club’s finals chances alive.

The 14.8 (92) to 5.16 (46) win over Sunshine Heights moved the Titans level with its weekend’s opponent on the ladder although they do have an inferior percentage.

It also marked a remarkable turnaround after Heights won the first meeting of the season by 107 points in round 2.

Heights will host Tarneit in another meeting later in the year which could act as an elimination finals if other results in the back half of the season fall as expected.

Titans vice-captain Zach Thornton said the win came at a “good time” for the club.

“It’s definitely our best win of the season and arguably one of the better wins in club history,” he said.

“The win will help boost the spirit around the group. When you’re winning games and can see the improvement it makes it easier to get to training in the middle of winter.”

Tarneit broke through for an important win against Sunshine Heights. Photo: Facebook.

The four points marked an important stage in the journey under Sheean who was appointed in mid-November after the players started pre-season without a senior coach.

Despite kicking against a strong breeze in the opening term, the Titans trailed by just two points at the first change before taking a 24-point lead into halftime.

“Our game style was on from the start,” Thornton said.

“If we had of kicked with the breeze we might have got caught up in blazing away at goal. But we stuck to our game style, which we’ve done in parts, for a full four-quarter effort.

“The chemistry has been there since Brent took over and he was really happy with how it all came together.”

Luke Price impressed in the ruck despite being undersized against his Heights opponents with Thornton and Ryan Potter also named among the better players.

Josh Dunstone kept Dragons coach Colby Blyth to three goals.

Jayden Osborne and Ryan Langford kicked three apiece for Tarneit.

Meanwhile, Brent Taylor kicked a goal in the last quarter in his first game for the Titans after crossing from Laverton.

“I thought it was our best forward structure of the year,” Thornton said.

“Brent gave us something different up there which gave us a good mix. It’s all starting to turn in the right direction for the club.

“We knew our defence was strong because we saw it last year but we’ve seen good improvement further up the ground in the first half of the year.”

In other Division 3 games, Albanvale was far too good for Laverton winning 40.21 (261) to 2.1 (13).

Meanwhile Suns defeated Braybrook 12.5 (77) to 5.12 (42).