ALBURY Thunder coach Josh Cale described his team’s 22-10 win against Young as “character building” after it outlasted the Cherrypickers in atrocious conditions at Young’s Alfred Oval yesterday.
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Showing it had learnt from its recent loss to Southcity, the Thunder played the percentages superbly as they stormed home to go a long way towards sealing the minor premiership.
The win was achieved without centres Mitch and Chris Seaton, while Jon Huggett withdrew from the team because of illness and hooker Adam Coote came off after 10 minutes with a groin injury.
“I’m over the moon to come away from Young with a win in those conditions,” Cale said.
“A win like that builds character.
“Before the game you could sense the boys had come to play and, even though we went in without a few players and lost a couple more during the game, they worked hard and showed they took something out of the Southcity game.
“I was really pleased with the way they defended and dug deep because we were under pressure there for a while.”
Captain Lou Goodwin led from the front with another relentless display in the mud while Andrew Cowhan and Mitch Davis also wore down their opponents with many powerful runs up the middle.
Willie Heta returned to form with a dazzling display and Rex Sargeant backed up well from reserve grade with 60 minutes before being forced off with cramp.
After leading 14-10 at half-time, the Thunder picked up the tempo with a brilliant 80-metre run and try from Cameron Breust sealing the victory in the final 10 minutes.
Young coach Luke Branighan was a threat with his kicking game and young forward Jack Hetherington underlined his class by turning in a quality performance against the best pack in Group 9.
“I thought we got something out of everyone today,” Cale said.
“At one stage we were caught on our line for a long time but the boys gutsed it out and did really well.”
Cootamundra moved into third spot with an 8-6 win over Brothers, Temora edged Tumut 16-12, Gundagai accounted for Junee 20-18 and Southcity brought down Kangaroos 36-20.