No wins yet but Blues on the up
TONGALA hasn’t won a game yet but the Blues took it up to another finals aspirant on Saturday.
The Blues gave unbeaten Moama a four-goal start in the game at Tongala but matched their rivals on the scoreboard for the last three quarters in another encouraging performance.
While Jordan Souter was again the general in the midfield, Tongala’s young brigade weathered the storm well again.
Ryley Cowley continued his great start to the season and with other talented youngsters in Ben Gledhill and Bailey Waasdorp, who also played well, are forming a band of hard running youngsters.
Gledhill is back playing after two seasons and has got back into the swing of things very quickly.
Another of their youngsters Nathan Torney also showed out in defence and is one of their many young players who are not overawed playing at this level.
The Blues also got a serviceable game out of their Echuca ruck recruit Jack Monigatti who plays above his years.
Tongala coach Travis Edwards said the slow start had again hurt his side.
‘‘We turned it over 13 times in the first quarter and that makes it hard but we did outscore them in the last three quarters,’’ said Edwards.
Edwards said he hoped his team now was ready to deliver some wins for supporters with winnable games against other battlers, Cobram this Saturday and Congupna, Finley and Rumbalara coming up in the next month.
Unfortunately Tongala will lose Tom Kneebone (broken collarbone) and Blake Mullholland (shoulder) from last Saturday’s side but will welcome back Tyler Vick, Joel Regan and Zane Johnstone for the trip to Cobram. ■ Like their seniors Tongala reserves gave Moama too much start but battled it out and kicked more goals than their rivals in the second half.
The Blues had only the one goal on the board at half-time but kicked four second half goals while keeping their rivals to three.
Coach Daryl Harrison set a good example to his team who had busy players in Sam Tyler, Luke Thompson while Layton McGann, Keiran Brennan and Tom Walsh also battled hard for the Blues. ■ Tongala Under 17s managed only one point in their clash with an impressive Moama outfit.
The Blues were outplayed just about everywhere.
James Watson, Jay Matthes, Tom Harris and Elijah Gilli worked hard to prevent a bigger blowout and Leyton Shenfield and Ryan Kay also got a bit of the ball but it was mainly one-way traffic. ■ The Tongala Under 14s met their match for the first time this season, going down by eight goals and never really being in the contest.
Mackenzie Cowley, Blake O’Hara and Hudson Kellett held their own for the Blues and got support from Max Watson and Luke and Ryan Smith.