O’Toole hits the magical century
AUSSIE RULES: The reduced season hasn’t stopped a phenomenal achievement in the Allied Pickford’s Cup at the weekend, with Goondiwindi player-coach David O’Toole bringing up a century of goals.
He achieved the feat in the Hawks’ 13th game of the season against Toowoomba, where he finished with a bag of 14 majors to take his season tally to 103 with one regular season match remaining.
It marks O’Toole’s fifth game with 12 or more goals, including a season-high 17 against Chinchilla in round 10, helping the forward on his way to his first century.
“I didn’t think it would happen this year,” O’Toole said.
“The 14-game season is pretty short but you do sort of think it would be nice if it did happen.
“I’m not the youngest player going around so it was now or never.
“We have a lot of new players in our side who have really contributed to us being a better team and getting more ball in the forward line.”
O’Toole said an unconventional form of motivation had surprisingly helped his form in front of goal.
“I’ve probably been a bit more accurate than I’ve been in the past,” he said.
“One of the things that teams don’t mind is heckling when (I’m) having a shot.
“Some teammates have jumped on board having a joke and it has helped in a way. They give me a hard time, but I see it as more of a joke than actual pressure.”
He credited a relentless attitude as a key factor in helping the team work its way to the best attacking record in the competition.
“We’ve been pretty focused on getting as strong a result as we can every week, even when we play lower sides on the ladder,” he said.
“The team has been playing four quarters every week and we’ve kept our standards up to get a good outcome on percentage.
“We anticipated this is where we’d end up, and that’s exactly why we’ve been focused. It can be the difference between second and third.”