Family culture on, off the field: coach

• Published date: 09 May 2023
• Publication title: Ensign, The

Albion has two senior teams in 2023 and 10 primary school-aged teams

Senior coach Duane Milane said the club was in good heart.

‘‘We’ve got a really good family culture.

‘‘Off the paddock we are going great but we could always improve our results on the field.’’

Milane is assisted by Jack Pay and Doug Clark. The management team includes Jimmy Cormack, Fraser Neil, Ken Walker and medic Mike Cowles.

The team competes in the Southland-wide division one competition and is captained by loose forward Cole Birse.

Albion lacked some discipline in its round one 25-19 loss to Drummond Limehills Star at the Showgrounds.

The tricolours experienced another loss in round two to the Waikaka Riversdale Vikings. The 45-19 scoreline did not reflect how intense and hard-fought this game was.

After the Easter break Albion earned a 22-20 win over Wyndham. This was a great effort against last year’s finalist. Hard-working lock forward Visesio Ulupano was man of the match.

After beating Wyndham, Albion was the new holder of the Speight’s Shield and the Wallis Shield. The Speight’s Shield is a division one trophy, while the Wallis Shield is contested between the Eastern Southland Clubs.

Unfortunately for the Albion players they had to hand over the Speight’s Shield the following week after a 55-14 loss to Te Anau.

Pioneer took possession of the Wallis Shield the following week after beating Albion 68-14.

Pioneer already held the Pasco-Gardener trophy after having the better of Albion in recent years.

The team put in an improved performance against Edendale last Thursday night before duck-shooting but lost 26-15.

Milane said they could have won that match with some luck.

In the seventh and final game of the first round Albion will host Tokanui this Saturday.

Albion has a squad of 30 players but Milane admitted it was hard to get them all there at once.

‘‘It is a really young squad. Our 17-year-old halfback Taine Donnelly is going well and first five-eighth Kurt Thompson is...