It was standing room only in the away dressing room at Nixon Park, Temora, on Saturday as the CSU Bushpigs celebrated their first win against the Kangaroos in five seasons.
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As his players belted out the team song, coach Daniel Athanitis encouraged them to soak up the atmosphere of a hard-fought victory.
On the back of a big second quarter, the Bushpigs held on to win 12.6 (78) to 11.8 (74) – their first success of the season and only their second celebration since July 2013.
And not since round 15, 2011 had they beaten Temora.
“It’s not easy being our club sometimes and today made it all worthwhile,” Athanitis said.
“But the main message is, we want this to be normal.
“I told them to enjoy it, of course, go for it.
“But I also told them that winning every week is a much better feeling than winning once every seven weeks.”
The Bushpigs trailed by a goal at the first break but took an 11-point lead into halftime.
The second quarter was the only one in which they outscored Temora but the four goals were critical and they held on for dear life, even as the Kangaroos came back to draw level with five minutes to go.
“If they’d hit the front (at any point after halftime) we might have dropped our heads but when they did get even, we kicked a goal and chased the game,” Athanitis said.
“I don’t think we stole the win, we won the game I think,” Athanitis said.
“The game was on our terms which was probably the first time it’s happened all year.”
Temora were without key players, with Charlie Vallance and Rob Grant out injured, Dan Reid unavailable and Josh Sheather and Rob Krause axed.
But nothing could take away from the Bushpigs’ effort in a courageous win built on defence.
“It was a good game of football, they’re well coached and well drilled,” Athanitis said.
“We give it everything we had – we were spent, we were shot. We ended up with only one on the bench and so did they, I think, so it was a physical game.
“To beat them, it was was great. It was just awesome.”
Jack Egan kicked three of CSU’s 12 goals while Rob Herzfeld had another eye-catching game in the midfield and Tennyson Vance continued his good form.
“And Harry Unthank, who probably goes under the radar a lot – he belts above his weight every week,” Athanitis said.
“He competed hard in the ruck which gives us the option of putting Dom (Smith) forward.”
It was Temora’s second straight loss and they have games against the Saints, Hawks and Magpies still to come.