Northern Jets coach Josh Avis admitted to a hollow feeling on Saturday evening despite his side showing plenty of resolve and return to winning form at Coleambally.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Jets went in assured of finishing fifth but desperate for a confidence-boosting victory before finals.
They got the win to restore some belief but will now wait to find out whether and when a finals campaign might unfold, having qualified to take on North Wagga in an elimination final.
"I'm a bit shattered that we're in a week's lockdown. It's definitely made a hollow feeling of today," Avis said after their hard-fought 17.11 (103) to 14.6 (90) win.
"Hopefully it builds momentum but I don't know if we're going to come out of lockdown in seven days.
"That's just my feeling, and if it goes any more than that, I think we'll be lucky if we do anything footy-wise.
"But stranger things have happened. Hopefully we do get to come back. But I'm not holding my breath."
Coleambally had no shortage of motivation themselves, needing a win to climb off the bottom of the ladder and dodge the wooden spoon, as well as celebrate Shane Pound's record-breaking 334th first grade game.
"They were up and about and really made us earn every kick," Avis said.
After a close first term, the home side held a three-point lead at half-time in an entertaining affair. There were 17 goals in the first half, with Coleambally star Jade Hodge on his way to seven for the game.
The Jets added nine of their own in the second half and, with a nine-point lead at three-quarter-time, they hung tough in the last, keeping the Blues to just three scoring shots.
"We were able to capitalise a little bit in the last quarter and spent the last 10 minutes fighting it out in their 50," Avis said.
"I was happy we were able to dig deep and scrap a bit. We are a pretty resilient group with a big expectation on them and we're finding a way most weeks."
They'll need that resilience to handle the coming uncertainty but Avis was happy to recognise what they've done in finishing fifth.
"I think it's huge. I think the fact that for a moment there, we could have pushed top three - it caught up with us in the end and we fell short of that - but to be top five and well in the top five, that's huge for us," he said.
"We set our goal to make finals and to do it comfortably and not have to fight it out in the last round, I was pretty rapt with that."
Star midfielder Mitch Haddrill might have played himself into a Player of the Year award with a fine game while Nate Doyle's four goals was outstanding and ruck Lachie Jones impressed.
Coleambally youngster Chris Hayes, co-coach Luke Hillier and Hodge led the Blues.
"They were up and about and moving the footy really well especially for the first three quarters, and cutting our defence open," Avis said.
"We were lucky we had enough legs and were able to get there in the end but they were good... if they were able to string it together and get some consistency during the year they would've really been pushing the top five."
Full-time:
Northern Jets 4.3, 8.7, 13.8, 17.11 (113)
Coleambally 4.2, 9.4, 12.5, 14.6 (90)
Goals: (Jets) Nate Doyle 4, Chris Bell 3, Mitchell Haddrill 3, Matthew Wallis 2, Jack Fisher 1, Harry Collis 1, Lachlan Jones 1, Samuel Fisher 1, Harrison Kimball 1; (Coleambally) Jade Hodge 7, Thomas Valeri 2, Shaun Light 2, Shane Pound 1, Guy Orton 1, Luke Hillier 1.
Best: (Jets) Mitchell Haddrill, Lachlan Jones, Nate Doyle, Jack Fisher, Sam Clemson, Harry Collis; (Coleambally) Christopher Hayes, Luke Hillier, Jade Hodge, Guy Orton, Shane Pound, Thomas Valeri.
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:
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters