A change in role is working well for Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes forward Flynn Collins who has enjoyed arguably his strongest start to a football season.
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Collins has adapted well to the notoriously tricky high half forward role and he was among one of their better players in their loss to Collingullie-Wagga last weekend.
The young forward is building confidence with each passing week and believes his new challenge is one of the factors that has led to his impressive performances.
"I reckon it's probably one of the strongest starts to my seasons for me," Collins said.
"It's definitely made it a lot easier for me to play there with all the boys around me and just the team.
"It doesn't really seem like Nelson (Foley) is the coach, everyone is just mates so it makes it easier to play for everyone.
"With having a young forward line like we do, we've all grown up together so that goes hand in hand with each other."
Collins received some reward for his effort in the loss to the Demons scoring three of the Goannas' six goals.
He revealed he was a bit fortunate to get a couple of them, but said it was nice to be able to hit the scoreboard.
"Yeah it wasn't bad," he said.
"I got lucky with a few of them there with down field free kicks, but you'll take them and it was nice.
"That high half forward role is new to me, I don't think I've ever played that in my career.
"I've always been a deep forward and one of the main targets from the square, so it's nice adapting to that and getting up the ground and getting more involved.
"To hit the scoreboard was nice."
Another factor in Collins' rise was his impressive pre-season that followed on from a stint in reserve grade at the end of last season.
The young forward finished the 2023 season in the two's and he admitted that was a bit of a motivator to drive himself over the Summer months.
"Yeah a little bit," he said.
"I just wanted to try and have a consistent run of games in the one's and keep building up the game log and confidence.
"The two's were somewhere I could get a bit of confidence back playing footy and then this pre-season I just thought I'm going to put my foot down and really try and make a big jump this year."
The Goannas were given a lesson last weekend by the Demons and Collins believed it showed the side where the bar is at.
"They proved that they are the team to beat this year," he said.
"Especially with their ball use and their forward entries, I don't think they bombed it in once.
"It was just short, sharp kicks to Stenno (Sam Stening) and Nate Mooney and they wouldn't drop anything.
"We didn't play our best brand of footy but that's what happens when you come up against those big sides, you get a bit of a shock for the first time."
The Goannas play host to Narrandera on Saturday and Collins agreed the Eagles would be right in the contest at Mangoplah Sportsground.
"They're definitely a much better Narrandera than they have been in recent years," he said.
"It'll definitely be a lot harder and tougher Narrandera side than what we are used to that's for sure."
The Goannas have made four changes ahead of the clash with the Eagles and defender Lachie Johnson headlines the omissions through suspension.
Riley Cole, Cody Reynoldson and Lachie Kendall will all miss the game through unavailability.
Liam Crittenden, Zac Walker, Sam Schiller and Beau Edmunds are the four that make their way into the side.
