Marrar midfielder Jackson Moye could miss the rest of the home-and-away season after breaking his collarbone in the Bombers’ big win against East Wagga-Kooringal on Saturday.
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Moye, who has been close to their best player this season and in stirring form over the past fortnight, was injured in the first couple of minutes at Langtry Oval. X-rays later showed three breaks.
The estimated recovery time for broken collarbones is around six weeks. The finals series is seven weeks away.
The injury took the shine off Marrar’s 9.15 (69) to 3.6 (24) win over the Hawks, who had their own heartache with backman Brenton Roberts carried off with an ankle injury in the third quarter of his record-breaking 244th first grade game for the club.
The Hawks were already understrength with ruckman Nick Hull and defender Joe Banks late withdrawals from a team which had already lost Nic Curran, Tom Pocock and James Hodges after last week.
Marrar, too, were without their starting ruckman Matt Parks (illness) but were able to overcome that and the loss of Moye without really missing a beat.
“It was a pretty good win,” Marrar coach Shane Lenon said.
“Similar to last week, pressure and their willingness to work for each other was really positive and that’s the idea now – we’ve just got to become consistent.”
On the upside, they had Brad Turner back for his first game and new arrival Charlie Youngman – who landed in their lap with a move to the region from Melbourne – also showed good signs, including a goal with his first touch in the Farrer League.
With the breeze, the Bombers had the better of the first quarter, kicking all three goals and keeping the Hawks to a point.
The win was set up in the second – when EWK were limited to two goals – and it was rammed home in the third when a dominant Bombers showed them how it was done at the scoring end.
Shortly after half-time, Jason Reid took an intercept mark and converted, while three goals in five minutes in the middle of the quarter opened up a 40-point lead and put the game away.
The Hawks went goalless from the middle of the second quarter until early in the fourth, and although the Bombers didn’t kick a goal in the last, they still had twice as many scoring shots.
Cal Gardner led Marrar’s midfield, despite copping heavy knocks in the first and last quarter, while Nick Molkentin was superb shouldering the ruck commitments, and taking marks to keep turning the Hawks around.
Turner’s comeback (he kicked 1.3) was also a highlight for Marrar.
“He didn’t kick a bag but he took some good marks and contested and just having him there is a positive – everyone loves having him in the side,” Lenon said.
Marrar have some handy players to come back in, including Clint Taylor, Jack Reynolds, Brad Langtry and Jeremy Rowe. They take on The Rock-Yerong Creek next week.
The Hawks have two more tough road trips in the next fortnight, to North Wagga and then Temora.
Stand-in coach Damien Scott couldn’t fault his side’s effort but said poor execution cost them.
“Early on we were certainly making a good contest of it. We had plenty of the football in our hands but we didn’t dispose of it well. We just didn't execute the skills,” Scott said. “But I never questioned the guys’ attitude. They were all willing to take it on but our own execution was the killer in the end.”
The Hawks remain fourth but are now a win behind Temora. However they maintain a two-game break on fifth-placed CSU, who were beaten by North Wagga.