No sooner had they celebrated last year’s premiership, than Marrar set about marching towards another one.
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In front of a big crowd at Langtry Oval on Saturday, the Bombers were on song early in the Farrer League grand final rematch against Temora, to set up a 9.11 (65) to 6.4 (40) win.
They didn’t hit all the right notes early, with a frustratingly low-scoring first quarter, but were all playing to the same tune in a game-breaking second.
“I thought in the first quarter our intent, our workrate and our hardness around the footy, our pressure when we didn't have the footy, with our tackling, was fantastic. And that continued into the second quarter, so the win was set up in the first half for sure,” coach Shane Lenon said.
Marrar dominated the opening 20 minutes but could only find one goal. And Temora looked like making them pay, working into the game before the break.
But a seven-all scoreline at quarter-time was soon buried by the Bombers, who upped the intensity and took their rewards, kicking five unanswered goals, including a composed effort from Jackson Moye and a double to Jack Reynolds.
When returning Bomber Brad Langtry kicked the first goal of the second half, Marrar had kicked six goals since quarter time, to Temora’s one behind, and threatened to embarrass the visitors.
However, the Kangaroos – with a handful of new faces on debut – steadied with back-to-back goals and kept Marrar to minor scores for the rest of the quarter.
Temora’s Mark Breust kicked his second and third early in the last term while Marrar continued to find only behinds. By the time youngster Will Reinhold effected a turnover with a great grab, and topped it off with a composed goal, the Roos were within 12 points.
But Marrar found a way to take their rewards, and take the game away as Reynolds kicked his third and Rory Block his second to seal it.
Reynolds was superb but the Bombers had a host of strong contributions, including newcomer Matt Hort, veteran Clint Taylor and midfielders Jesse Margosis and Cal Gardner. And Langtry showed that he’s going to be a classy addition.
While the Bombers were shaky in their two pre-season trials, Lenon said he wasn’t surprised they turned it around in game one.
“We still had a good pre-season… we had players missing in our trial games, like Brad Langtry and these blokes that are travelling,” he said.
“As we could see today, he’s going to be a great pick up for us, he’ll only get better for the run. But we had a good, even spread of contributors and played a good brand of team footy so it was pretty pleasing.”
Breust had a big game for Temora but was their only real threat forward, while Reinhold and Lachlan Leary had good touches and Isaac Reardon worked hard.
An injury to ruckman Anthony Atkin didn’t help their cause either.