Three months to the day after they last lost a game, Coleambally’s winning streak reached double figures on Saturday, when they exacted some revenge on the team that knocked them out of last year’s finals.
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The 14.13 (97) to 8.5 (53) win over North Wagga means the Saints’ hopes of sneaking into the five have slipped from next-to-no-chance to mathematical-and-needing-a-miracle.
Blues coach Josh Hamilton was full of praise for his players after their 10th straight win.
“It’s a great effort by the boys, they’ve done really well,” Hamilton said.
The Blues juggernaut is going to take some stopping, with Wes Kiley, Brandon Mathews and Mitch Carroll all likely to return against the Northern Jets next week.
“We keep improving each time we play, so that’s the best thing about it – I think our best is still in front of us,” Hamilton said.
And Dean Pound running the water suggests a return may not be out of the question. The 2014 league medallist continues to recover from a serious compartment syndrome scare that left him with a 30 centimetre scar on his thigh amid concerns his season was over.
“That’s a massive injury so there’s no pressure from me for him to come back – it’ll be up to him and the doctors,” Hamilton said.
“But he’s back on his feet and the boys all love him, so it’s good.”
Coming off the bye, the Blues were slow to start at Coleambally Sportsground, as North Wagga kicked all three goals of the first quarter.
But the Saints again couldn’t handle the fightback, as the Blues replied with eight unanswered goals after the break, scoring in a quarter what the Saints managed in a whole game.
“We chatted about a few things and they responded pretty well – we got a good lead on them then,” Hamilton said.
“It was just a matter of switching on really, obviously coming off the bye and we haven’t really been able to train much on the footy oval.”
Up by 34 points at the main break, the Blues didn’t look back, kicking more than a dozen goals for a third straight game.
In the absence of Mathews it was again a good spread of contributors, led by Simon Mackie and Nathan Jones with three each, as Coleambally opened the game up.
“It was once we got going, we had lots of good passages of play, clean passages too,” Hamilton said.
“Everyone was working really hard, getting on the end of handballs and running really hard so it was good.”
Hamilton led from the front dominating the ruck while assistant coach Tom Groves was crucial in turning things around after quarter-time.
Shaun Light and Jackson Painting were also among their best in a strong team performance while Hamilton said Drew Kenna is having a bigger influence every week and Blake Jones was also strong.
For the second week in a row, North Wagga defender Ned Mortimer and winger Ben Alexander (who finished with three goals) worked hard in a losing side.
