With legends of Tongala’s premiership victories watching on from the clubrooms the Blues put on a show befitting the occasion.
Celebrating the 40-year anniversary of the first of Tongala’s back-to-back flags in 1983-84, as well as the quartet of the Blues’ flags from the Goulburn Valley League era, the senior squad belied the apparent mismatch on paper against Numurkah (second) to produce its best win of season 2023.
A pre-game rev-up from a Blues legend and yet another starring performance from an 18-year-old in his first season of senior football laid the platform for a memorable day at Tongala Recreation Reserve in Murray Football League.
“I think there were 100 people upstairs. All the boys loved it,” Tongala coach Matt Daniel said.
“The boys got a kick out of putting in the effort in front of all the old legends of the club.
“Des Campbell had a chat with us before the game, which was good. He just mentioned that the year’s not over until it’s over, it doesn’t matter if you’re not playing finals.
“He gave us a bit of a rev-up.”
It seemed an arm-wrestle clash was going the way of a fast-starting Numurkah, which carried a 27-point lead into half-time.
Daniel said it was more a matter of execution than effort that initially held the Blues back.
“We were costing ourselves in the first half,” he said.
“We chipped away at them. The belief at three-quarter time was through the roof.”
The reason for that belief was because Tongala had muscled its way right back into the contest, booting five goals to Numurkah’s three behinds in a game-changing burst.
“Last week, we really didn’t bring the effort we know we’re capable of. We weren’t able to play four quarters,” Daniel said.
“This week we did.”
In a thrilling final term, both clubs had their chances to put the game to bed, but it was Jordan Souter’s fourth and final goal of the game that sealed a memorable 10.11 (71) to 9.13 (67) victory.
In what has been a difficult season for the Blues, Daniel declared it Tongala’s best win of the year.
“We did really well to hang on because we only had two on the bench after half-time,” he said.
“We can be inconsistent and 15-minute periods can kill us, but yesterday we brought the four-quarter effort which was fantastic. We showed a lot of heart to run the game out.”
Tristan Watson starred in front of a gallery of former Tongala greats, earning praise from his coach.
“Tristan Watson again, it’s his first year of senior footy and he was best-on-ground again,” Daniel said.
“Coby McCarthy was sensational on the ball, Dom Watt was good, Jordan Souter played his best game of the year.”
The result leaves Numurkah in danger of losing its coveted hold on second spot, with the Blues holding a final-round bye and the three clubs clamouring for the position — Nathalia, Congupna and Moama — one game behind.