SCHOOLBOY sensation Liam Delahunty led Coolamon to a thrilling two-point victory over Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes on Sunday.
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The Hoppers came from 17 points down early in the final term to keep their season alive in brilliant fashion, winning a fiery affair 13.10 (88) to 11.20 (86) at Kindra Park.
In just his second game of senior football, Delahunty set Coolamon alight with a seven-goal best-on-ground performance.
The 16-year-old booted three goals in the space of three minutes midway through the final term to lift the Hoppers from 17 points behind to one point in front.
The two teams then traded late goals, before a couple of Coolamon behinds in the dying minutes got the Hoppers home.
It was a big performance from the Hoppers, who showed plenty of character after finding themselves down to 17 men for a 15-minute period in the third quarter when Ben Alexander was red carded.
As impressive as Coolamon’s fight was, the contest could have been well beyond reach had MCUE kicked straight in the second and third quarters.
But the Goannas didn’t take their chances, and Coolamon lifted in front of a vocal home crowd to enjoy one of the best wins under coach Matt Hard.
“It probably rates right up there,” Hard said.
“We were obviously missing Joe Redfern, he’s obviously a key player, and Ryan Chamberlain, and then all of a sudden we replace Joe with a 16-year-old kid who stands up and does that, it’s pretty special.
“Fifteen minutes a man down, behind on the scoreboard, to dig in and show some fight, I thought it was outstanding character from our boys and I’m really proud of them.”
The Hoppers started on fire, but slowly MCUE clawed there way back into the contest. The game rose a level in the third term and Coolamon did themselves no favours with their discipline, as the visitors kicked two consecutive goals from free kicks, plus 50 metre penalties.
Hard admitted the Hoppers may lost their way slightly for a second, but was happy with the endeavour.
“We probably lost it a little bit but it was actually good to see them care for each other like that,” Hard said.
“If you go and do that and you lose by five goals, then you might say a different thing but to calm down, concentrate on playing footy, to actually go back and get away from all that sort of stuff and actually run hard, put your head over the footy and do the hard stuff, to be able to go from that to that, I thought it was great.”
In a game that had everything, Delahunty was the star. Not far behind was Jamie Maddox’s last term effort as he stepped up with the perfect captain’s quarter.
Ben Fixter, Marshal Macauley and Mitch McKelvie were others to shine.
MCUE went in without key forward Jordan Foster and battled for avenues to goal.
Trent Cohalan almost willed his team over the line with a strong game in the midfield, while Tom Keogh was also very good.
Hard hopes the upset can be the win that turns Coolamon’s season around, after the first half of the season was filled with honourable defeats.
“We’ve been pressing for a long time as everyone knows, and as the scoreboard and results have been showing,” he said.
“We probably needed to prove to ourselves that we can beat sides like Mangoplah by actually doing it.
“Today they’ve done it. they’ve put the work in and got a good win out of it.”