Charles Sturt University coach Pat Noonan will continue to concentrate on their game, not the ladder, after the Bushpigs stayed in finals contention with an important win against Barellan on Saturday.
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After being up by two goals at quarter-time at Peter Hastie Oval, the Bushpigs were seven points behind at half-time and facing a challenge. But they worked their way back in front, before going on with it to win 10.10 (70) to 7.6 (48).
"It's a good relief, getting that win," Noonan said. "We were lucky in the third quarter to kick a couple of late goals which kept us in the game and at three-quarter-time we spoke about controlling the midfield.
"It was on those guys, and they all stepped up."
Lachy Moore had a big impact as well as Ben Keith in getting momentum going their way. And that was no small effort against a Two Blues side led by Sean Ellis and Ben Maiden. And the return of Brayden Ambler helped as the CSU co-captain kicked three goals.
The Bushpigs get twice the bang for their buck with a bye next week giving them two weeks to savour the result.
Their third win this season has them four points outside the five, level with The Rock-Yerong Creek and Coleambally who are also stalking the Northern Jets. And a guaranteed four points means, at worst, they'll still be only one win off fifth next week.
"I don't think we really had that in mind today, we just wanted to a 'W' because we were at home," Noonan said.
"And we played good footy last week (against Temora) but let ourselves down in the fourth quarter so we wanted to get something back this week.
"It's not about ladder position for us, it's about playing good football and being competitive."
After next week's bye, CSU face three top sides in a row - North Wagga, East Wagga-Kooringal and Marrar.
Barellan have slipped to two wins behind the three teams above them, Coleambally, CSU and The Rock-Yerong Creek. They are away to the Jets next week.
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