MANGOPLAH-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes will not have to look far for inspiration when they hold their annual Yellow and Pink Day on Saturday.
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The Goannas face Wagga Tigers in an important Riverina League clash at Mangoplah Sportsground but the day will be mean much more than just football.
MCUE will don special guernseys to raise funds and awareness for men’s and women’s cancers, with proceeds going to The McGrath Foundation and the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group
The day means a lot to the club, and senior coach Travis Cohalan particularly.
Cohalan was diagnosed two years ago with a rare form of testicular cancer – Primary Mediastinal Non-Seminoma Germ Cell Tumour – and underwent treatment and surgery in 2015 in Melbourne.
He has regular follow-up appointments with his oncologist in Melbourne but has bounced back to be MCUE’s non-playing coach.
MCUE’s Trent Cohalan and Ryan Price said their coach’s story certainly adds extra significance to what is already a big day.
“Initially it was breast cancer, we had two or three people there who were directly affected at the time and now with Trav’s cancer a couple of years ago it means even more to the boys,” Trent said.
“It touches home a bit when you’ve got someone there, week in, week out, and he’s quite passionate about that. That comes onto us and we want to help out as much as we can,” Ryan said.
Travis said the causes are close to his heart.
“For us it’s about using our football club as a vehicle to spread awareness about all types of cancers,” Cohalan said.
On field, MCUE will be out to bounce back from a shock loss to Coolamon a fortnight ago. The second-placed Goannas have had two weeks to stew on the result after having the bye last weekend.
Cohalan believes the bye came at the perfect time.
“We definitely needed the break,” Cohalan said.
“We had a lot of, and still do have a few sore bodies and niggling injuries. In all honesty, if we had of played last week we would have had five or six out.
“We had a good chat about a few of the things that happened in the Coolamon game but it’s all about looking forward now and we’re looking forward to the challenge of playing one of our great rivals in Tigers.”
Cohalan does not believe MCUE have to change much from the Coolamon loss.
“I was pretty happy with the performance, to be honest. I think we dominated the majority of key areas, except for the one that probably counts the most, which is the goalkicking,” he said.
“We have played worse football this year and won. We did a lot of things right, we just didn’t get the result because of our own inaccuracy in front of goal.”
Key forward Jordan Foster remains a 50-50 chance to return from a hip-flexor injury.