Important wins build confidence and create ambition for Barellan and Northern Jets

Nothing's as infectious as winning (apart from, say, COVID-19) and the Two Blues hope to give East Wagga-Kooringal a headache this weekend after a big win at Temora last Saturday.

Barellan won only one game in 2019, but shocked the Hawks with a draw in round 13.

Coach Alex Lawder said they'd love to celebrate this weekend's club ball by backing up the win at Temora with another big performance.

"It's a good confidence boost for everyone to know that we're on the right path and everything we're doing is starting to click and show signs of improvement," Lawder said.

"To be honest, I want to start ruffling a few feathers and knocking off a few big dogs.

"That's easier said than done of course. It was just important to get that first win."

Barellan's main aim is to be consistent, and improving. Lawder believes their heavy loss at The Rock a couple of weeks ago was a case of two steps back for one step forward.

"We've been building week by week," Lawder said.

"Obviously The Rock was a bit of a setback but we tried some different things.

"It was more of a learning thing. Sometimes you've got to go backwards before you can go forwards, as frustrating as it is.

"No-one likes losing but we really took a lot out of that in regards to learning. It showed against North Wagga and then against Temora."

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Injuries have disrupted their start to the year but there were no new issues on the weekend.

In fact, there was the luxury late in the game of being able to rest players who were only a week into their returns and the Two Blues will also have Jack Hillman and Jack Brumby available after serving suspensions.

The Jets are also hunting consecutive victories this week and, on paper at least, it's a real prospect against winless Temora.

But Ariah Park's been an unhappy home ground for a few years and nothing's taken for granted in a local derby against the 'Roos.

Coach Josh Avis said a big win in Wagga can do wonders for the Jets, and knocking over the defending premiers, North Wagga, was exactly that.

"It's definitely big for the confidence. We talked before the game that while we had internal expectations, we probably didn't have any external pressure on us," Avis said.

"We weren't expected to come out and win, and I said to the boys, 'There's no pressure. Let's not die wondering. Let's have a crack.' And to the boys' credit, they did. They had a crack.

"The young blokes, you can see when the tails are up, they stay up and in the last quarter, we were lucky to get a bit of a roll on... the wind was right in the sails."

The Jets sit sixth, with games against EWK and Coleambally after this week.

They're a win behind Charles Sturt University, who take on North Wagga, Temora and EWK in the next three games.

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