A move on-ball might've just been the spark Cooper McKelvie needed to kick-start his season at Coolamon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The pacey midfielder has long been regarded as one of the best wingers in the competition, however he added another string to his bow last weekend with a best-on-ground performance in the Hoppers 70-point win over Leeton-Whitton.
McKelvie admitted it hadn't been his strongest start to the season, however he said he thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of playing on-ball against the Crows.
"I think I got off to a bit of a slow start," McKelvie said.
"But I kind of worked myself into it on the weekend and hopefully I can get a little bit of form going for the rest of the year.
"I haven't really played midfield minutes in first grade footy at all, so it was good to get in there and try it out a little bit.
"It's interesting and I've still got a lot to learn, but I enjoyed it."
The Hoppers will play host to Wagga Tigers on Sunday at Kindra Park and McKelvie said he was excited for the clash.
"Yeah I'm looking forward to it," he said.
"I think it should be a good clash really, we match up pretty evenly against Tigers.
"We're both very young sides with not a lot of height."
The Hoppers have been one of the surprise packets of the competition so far after working their way to a 2-2 start which included positive performances against Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong and Collingullie-Wagga.
McKelvie said he's been happy with their start to the year and he believed they could continue to be competitive for the rest of the season.
"Yeah definitely, 2-2 is a pretty good start to the season really," he said.
"I think if we can get a few more wins than losses then we should be there or there about's at the end of the season.
"I wouldn't say we surprised ourselves, but obviously we had a pretty big turnover and we didn't really know what to expect.
"From pretty early on in the pre-season you could see the intent and everyone still believed that we had a good side.
"I think it's showing now that even though we had a big turnover, we've still got plenty of good players left at the club."
New Hoppers coach Gavin McMahon has introduced a new game plan for his side this season and it has shown to be quite effective when Coolamon has been able to implement it.
McKelvie believed that after a month the Hoppers were getting their heads around the new way they are playing their footy.
"The way Gav's taught it all everyone has bought into it," he said.
"He's set it up very well and made it easy for everyone to understand.
"Everyone is loving it I think, it suits our players we have in our team and it's working well."
The senior departures at the Hoppers has also created an opportunity for McKelvie to step into a leadership role at Coolamon.
He admitted it's a little strange to now be a leader after once being a youngster in the side, however said he's enjoying the challenge.
"It's probably a younger leadership group compared to most other clubs," he said.
"But it's given opportunities for people like myself and BJ Glyde to step up a little bit which is good.
"It is pretty weird I guess and I wouldn't say I'm one of the older boys, but it's probably come up sooner than I thought it would.
"You're just trying to teach the young fellas a few things, but I'm also still learning myself."
McKelvie has been a loyal Coolamon player since he started in juniors and he revealed there was never any danger of him leaving despite the mass exodus over the off-season.
"I was always going to stay at the Hoppers," he said.
"Gav had me locked in pretty early, I heard what he was trying to do and I liked it.
"I always was going to stick around at Coolamon."
