Barellan forward Will Overs believes the Two Blues can have a significant impact on the finals picture in the last month of the season.
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Their only win of the season so far was at Coleambally nine weeks ago. On Saturday, they'll chase another against the Blues and are riding high for a second straight home game after drawing with East Wagga-Kooringal last week.
"Hopefully we can keep that momentum going. It'd be nice to finish off the back half of the season in some good form," Overs said.
"When we first came to the comp, we were on the bottom and there was a massive difference. Now we're in games, we just haven't been finishing them off.
"We're not going to play finals but we feel as though we can possibly have an influence in who does play finals, and that's what we're striving to do."
Overs had two stints coaching his home club in their first four seasons back in the Farrer League before Sean Browning took the reins this year.
He kicked four goals against the Hawks, but was kicking himself after missing his last shot at a winning goal in the final minutes.
But, taking a step back, Overs recognises the significance of a draw with EWK. In 2014 and 2015, their average losing margin against the Hawks was more than 100 points. In their last five meetings, they've averaged 50-point losses.
"Oh yeah, we've been on the wrong end of some hidings over at East Wagga and at home, so it was nice," he said. "It would've been nicer to win but I can only blame myself for that. But yeah, to draw, it was nice to have zero points difference. Usually there's a 10 in front of that zero. We've had some 100-point shellackings. So hopefully it can set us up for the back half of the season.
"We had a few out too and Sean was saying before the game, 'This is the time we need to stand up, as players and as a club'. And we did, which is a bit of a feather in the cap of the playing group and hopefully we can build from there."
Barellan welcome the return of ruckman Shaun Allan from a calf injury and Ben Maiden who, on a wing or across half-back, has been their most consistent this year.
Against Coleambally, the focus will be on closing down the outside runners, as the Blues aim to push their way into the five with a win.
"We were pretty lucky to pinch one over there, it was two points and it could've gone either way," Overs said.
"But we've developed a rivalry over the last four or five games. It's a good rivalry and we're pretty wary as well - they're pretty quick on the outside and they've got enough nuggets in the midfield to get it out to them."
Barellan tackle eighth-placed The Rock-Yerong Creek next week before finishing off against top three teams Temora and Marrar (either side of a bye).
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