Winners are singers and at Nixon Park on Saturday, the North Wagga dressing room was rocking to a tune by Reef that said it all.
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Oh, place your hands, on my hope…
The Saints found their groove against Temora – and it looked a lot like key forward Alex Grozinger, who finished with nine goals in a 70-point win.
But hope is still the key word in their finals dream.
The 18.12 (120) to 7.8 (50) victory has them four points outside the five but the Saints are going to have to ride a win and prayer into the finals.
With the bye next week, they’re sweating on Marrar being upset by CSU and then overcoming the Bushpigs themselves in the last round.
Grozinger’s haul, and his combination with fellow forward Daniel Jordan, suggests they have the spearheads to do some damage if they can sneak into finals.
But the fact it’s an ‘if’ annoys coach Kirk Hamblin.
“It’s something North Wagga hasn’t had for years, so to have two potent forwards like that … that’s probably the real disappointing thing about this year – we had those blokes this year but probably haven’t supplied them,” Hamblin said.
After a slight delay to start as the clubs scrambled to supply goal umpires, Temora kicked the opening goal from the first clearance and almost two in two minutes.
But it was 43 minutes of football before they kicked their second, while North Wagga seized control.
The visitors kicked eight unanswered goals and Grozinger and Jordan shared seven of them.
The game was gone for Temora by quarter-time after a display that had veteran Damien Ponting seething.
They showed some fight in the second quarter to limit the damage but the Saints went on a rampage in the third opening up a 69-point lead.
They played like a team enjoying their footy and Hamblin said it’s not just that the pressure is off, but they’re getting better at playing together.
That applies to Grozinger, who has come into his own in the last six weeks.
“His pressure when the ball’s on the ground is underrated and it was good he finally got results for the hard work he’s been putting in,” Hamblin said.
Grozinger said he’s kicked nine goals in a game only once before and “that was against way worse opposition than that.”
He should’ve finished in double figures, kicking 9.4, including one shot late that just grazed the post for a point after he played on.
“That’s probably the first time we’ve really gelled as a forward line,” Grozinger said.
“I think before that we were playing a bit individual, so it worked well.”
Jake May and Lachie Highfield were influential, Corey Watt applied pressure and defender Brayden Skeers also had a big game for Saints.