Goannas to celebrate their milestone men against Leeton-Whitton

The Goannas' milestone men have made a habit of sharing the spotlight, which will continue when they celebrate their 150^th and 250^th respective first grade games for the club at home against Leeton-Whitton on Saturday.

Midfielder Ethan Schiller will also play his 100^th senior game, while forward George Kendall will be recognised for playing his 50^th game just before the bye.

Keogh made his senior debut in Cohalan's 100^th game, while they also capped their 100^th and 200^th milestones in the same game against Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong in 2017.

"It's pretty funny how it all works," Cohalan said.

"In all the seasons we've played together, this year is the best footy I've ever seen him (Keogh) play."

MCUE are unbeaten through seven games and will be unbackable favourites to extend it to eight against the last-placed Crows.

They are well-placed to shoot for a first flag since 1993, but Cohalan knows better than most not to count their chickens.

The Goannas were beaten by Collingullie-Glenfield Park in back-to-back grand finals in 2014 and 2015, Schiller's first two years at senior level.

"I guess when you get a bit older and you get up around these milestones, you know you don't have a whole lot of time left," Cohalan said.

"To be sitting undefeated at nearly the halfway mark of the year, it can jump in your mind a little bit about what could possibly be.

"When the club's gone almost 30 years without a premiership, your goal at the start of the year has to be to try and win one. We certainly set that as what we wanted to achieve at the start of the year, and now we've scaled it back into bite-size goals.

"We certainly don't think we're unbeatable, we're very aware Ganmain and Coolamon are very good footy clubs and Turvey, Tigers and Collingullie on their day are very good as well. It's a wide open comp."

Keogh won a flag with Wagga Tigers in 2019, but the Goannas junior knows helping break their drought would be special.

"It would be a different kettle of fish if we could win one out there, for all the old boys it would be a great thing," Keogh said.

"Our main core has played together for so long and we've been close a couple of times. We got to the grand final twice and weren't able to get it done."

IN OTHER NEWS

Coach Jeremy Rowe has relentlessly pushed his team to make improvements, even in games they've had wrapped up well before the end, to ensure they're at their peak for finals.

"When you win you can get complacent and you're not as critical about yourself, but Rowey doesn't kiss you on the arse just for the sake of it," Keogh said.

"Even if we win, if we do something poor he's on our case. There's still a lot to improve on, even though we've won every game we've had bad patches in games."

Kendall is regarded as one of the best young forwards in the competition, and has benefited from the extra focus given by rivals to teammate Trent Castles, who has booted 36 goals already this year in just five games.

"It gives me a lot more breathing room, that's for sure. I'm not getting the best defender and it's up to me to try and exploit it," he said.

"The (bye) break was great to refresh, of all the years I think it's our time to really go for it."

The Goannas have spoken all year about embracing being the hunted, and Cohalan hopes that mindset serves them well once the stakes get higher.

"Other teams we come up against are going to think they're underdogs, and you can certainly spring upsets with that," he said.

"We're well aware teams are going to come out and throw everything at us, but from our perspective we hope the leadership of our players shines through and we can band together and overcome those obstacles."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: