In the thick of things: Barooga's Sam Poole and Moama's Callum Doyle vie for the footy.
Photo by
Gregor Mactaggart
Heading into its Murray Football League clash against Moama, Barooga went in with a specific mentality.
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Prior to the game, Hawks coach Luke Jarjoura said the scoreboard did not matter — instead, he wanted to see his side win the effort battle against one of the competition’s top teams.
And while it was the Magpies who prevailed by 49 points, Jarjoura said his side delivered what he wanted to see from them.
“I was very proud of our performance. For large chunks of the game I thought we controlled it,” Jarjoura said.
“As I said at the start of the year, I want teams to know they have had a tough game against Barooga and to hate playing against us, and I think there will be some wounded bodies at Moama early this week.”
The Magpies gained the ascendancy early at Moama Recreation Reserve, utilising a strong breeze to kick 3.4 to Barooga’s 0.1 in the opening term.
And while the Hawks responded with five goals in the second quarter, they still trailed by 15 points at half time.
“The scoreboard pressure early affected us a little bit, but we managed to compete regardless. We were very desperate around the ball, our contested footy was phenomenal.
“In the second quarter we had the breeze and I thought we just lacked a little bit of quality up forward, we didn’t capitalise on our opportunities and you have to against those top sides.”
Seven goals to two Moama’s way in the third quarter saw the margin balloon again, with the Pies eventually running out 17.12 (114) to 10.5 (65) victors.
Up the field: Lachlan Harris drives this ball long for Barooga.
Photo by
Gregor Mactaggart
Evidence of improvement
The eight-goal margin might not look too pretty, but it shows an improvement in results against other flag contenders Congupna and Mulwala — games that Barooga lost by 84 and 123 points respectively.
“From a coaching point of view I am extremely pleased with our development and we are getting closer all the time to those top three sides,” Jarjoura said.
“As the year goes on, it will be great to see us get even closer once the finals roll around.”
Defender Nick Gooch is more akin to stopping goals then scoring them. But after getting thrown into the forward line, he did plenty of damage on the scoreboard with five goals on the day.
“In that first quarter we lacked a big key forward. I had to rob Peter to pay Paul and throw Nick, who has been a phenomenal full back in the NTFL, up forward and it was a revelation for us,” Jarjoura said.
“Not only did he take a couple of grabs and kick a few goals, but he was able to bring the ball to ground and give our smaller players an opportunity at ground level to hit the scoreboard.”
Battle for the ball: Barooga's Ryan Harris tackles Moama's James Whitehead.
Photo by
Gregor Mactaggart
No time off
Barooga might have a bye coming up this weekend, but Jarjoura said there would be no time to relax ahead of a big month of football.
Instead, the bye will be an opportunity to reload.
“The draw opens up for us now, obviously with the start of the year being a massive litmus test with the top four sides in the first five weeks,” Jarjoura said.
“The bye has come at the right time. We can have a mini pre-season now and really launch into those winnable games after the break. We are going to train very hard.
“We are really going to hit Echuca United with all we have got. This next block of games are all very winnable so we are excited to get stuck into it.”
Following the bye, Barooga will take on Echuca United, Deniliquin, Tongala and Nathalia.
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