The town of Coleambally will celebrate its 50th birthday this weekend and football club co-coach, Tom Groves, is hoping the occasion can inspire his players to atone for their most disappointing loss of the season.
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The Blues were thrashed at Barellan last week in a result that saw them drop to the bottom of the ladder. They return home this week to host the Northern Jets and will be out to spring a birthday surprise.
“Obviously it’s a pretty big game and a big weekend for the town and the footy club being the 50-years anniversary for the town,” Groves said.
“We’re really geed up to hopefully bounce back. It was our most disappointing loss. We didn’t turn up on the day and they were ready and raring to go right from the start.”
The football club in Coleambally is older than the town itself. The Blues celebrated their 50th birthday three years ago. But Groves admits, in a tough season, it’s hard not to wonder about the future.
“It is quite concerning, especially having no under 17s and 15s. But if we’ve got a good core group we can keep for a couple of years and ride this wave out, bring in some recruits each year, we can get through it,” he said.
“But it is going to be very difficult. It will be hard work but hopefully we can ride through it.”
The club has struggled for numbers and Groves says injuries to key players hasn’t helped. Co-coach Mitch Carroll was one of them, going for a knee operation after tearing his meniscus and breaking a bone in his tibia back in round one against North Wagga.
Key midfielder Graham O’Connell also hasn’t played since that game, injuring his shoulder after just five minutes. He’s a chance to return this weekend.
But promising youngster Chris Hayes, who was due back from a wrist injury last week, has been told he needs another four weeks off.
“He’s shown a lot of promise,” Groves said. “He’s still a young kid and showing plenty of character in senior footy.
“He was supposed to be back but he had further scans and he’s been pushed back another month or so which is disappointing and frustrating for him. He keeps coming to training every week and he’s eager to get out there.”
Exciting youngster Jack Cullen has spent plenty of time on representative duties including being selected in the under 16 NSW/ACT side for the national championships.
Despite the setbacks, Groves says he’s enjoying thoroughly enjoying coaching his home club. The highlight has undoubtedly been their upset win against The Rock-Yerong Creek.
“That was pretty exciting for us. We’ve shown glimpses in matches of what we have against teams,” he said. “And the rise of a few young kids doing well in senior footy who seem to be stepping up to the challenge.
“But being a young group you’ve obviously going to have lulls in games. We just want to see improvement and consistency in games. We haven’t shown that consistency for four quarters,, except for that one game which we won.”
The Jets, sitting seventh, have also struggled for consistency and are desperate for their second win of the season in a bid to stay in touch with the top five.