Riding a wave of emotion, Ag College put in their best performance of the season to lock in third place on the Southern Inland ladder.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Just days after the death of teammate Andy Stanham, Aggies delivered a 57-10 thrashing of premiers Leeton at Beres Ellwood Oval.
The guard of honour stretched almost the width of the field to welcome the team onto the ground as Ag College paid a touching tribute to the 22-year-old both on and off the field.
Coach Will Mitchell, who is Stanham’s brothers, couldn’t be prouder of how the young team handled the situation.
“I think we grew another 20 per cent,” Mitchell said.
“The boys were extremely mature about everything and there was a lot of adversity we needed to face but I couldn’t be prouder of the boys and Andy couldn’t have been prouder of them I give you the tip.”
Not letting the occasion get to them, Andrew Knox scored the first of his four tries in the opening minutes before Mike van Diggelen crashed over to increase their advantage after seven.
Knox had his second before Leeton got one back with a pushover effort from Tim Rolls, but it was all Ag College in the first half.
Hamish Pennington scored a double to give Aggies a 33-5 lead at the break.
Despite Leeton having a lot more ball in the second half Ag College still dominated on the scoreboard.
Knox scored two range efforts to seal the big win and hand them a second chance come finals time.
Despite the plethora of points it was their defensive effort which pleased Mitchell the most.
“The proudest part of my day was really our defence,” he said.
“In the second half we didn’t have much ball but didn’t give away penalties and just defended really strongly, played really smart footy and that ultimately turns the ball over when you frustrate sides that aren’t going anywhere and then we managed to pull the trigger.”
Ag College needed to win to stay in third place and will now tackle Leeton for the second week in a row.
Despite the big win, Mitchell believes they need to up their game to take on the Phantoms in the finals.
“We need to repeat the performance and add another 10 per cent,” he said.
“Leeton have seen how we play footy now and will be better drilled for it.”
Leeton had nothing to gain from the game and were without plenty of big names including star halfback Freddy Tupou.
However they were their own worst enemy with poor discipline and too many handling errors, especially in the first half.
They had Joe Ratu yellow carded late in the first half and struggled to match the passion displayed by their rivals.
READ MORE