The Suns faced Albury-Wodonga Football Association All Stars on Saturday and came away with a 4-1 triumph thanks to a brace apiece from Sean Grant and Brandon Giaccherini.
Coach Craig Carley was pleased with the effort of his troops — as well as the concept as a whole following a contest against the Shepparton All Stars earlier in the summer.
“I was really happy with how we played,” Carley said.
“We had a lot of the ball and our movement was really good which is something we've been working on.
“It's promising signs to see things we're working on at training transfer into the game.
“We want to be helping to push football in the wider area in the same direction, and events like this one against Albury and the earlier game against Shepparton are part of that.”
Teenage sensation Giaccherini scored with a long-range strike as well as a lunging dive in the box on the end of a cross, while Grant also sent home almost a mirror-image of the latter and polished off the Suns’ performance with a breakaway run down the left from a midfield All Stars turnover, beating the keeper on his near post as the sun set on McEwen Reserve's Theatre of Dreams.
“Everyone performed really well,” Carley said.
“Darcy Pawlik and Matty Lelliott showed lots of positive signs and Zaccy Balaburov and Greg Nash worked really well together at the back.
“One of Brandon's goals was from about 45 yards, it was a great strike.”
The Suns now face state league outfit Whittlesea United and will get even more run into the legs of the squad with an under-21 clash also scheduled.
“We'll get a seniors and 21s game up this weekend and really ramp up the run in everyone's legs,” Carley said.
“We've had a couple of really good hit-outs against some strong NPL teams where we knew we wouldn't have much of the ball.
“No disrespect to Whittlesea at all, but now against a state league side we want to make sure we can control possession more and be in charge of the game.”
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