TONGALA have been handed their first defeat of the season by a rampant Mulwala outfit, going down by 43 points at home.
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The Blues were undermanned going into the match, and were stretched by the Mulwala forward line, with the likes of Luke James, Chase Strawhorn and Jake Wild all causing headaches for the Blues.
James kicked five goals for the day and Strawhorn two, but it was the young swingman Wild who stole the show for the Lions.
After starting the season with the development squad for VFL side the Northern Blues, Wild dominated through the middle and across half-forward for his home club Mulwala, kicking one goal and setting up a number of other opportunities.
Assistant coach Chris O’Neill said it was a good win, despite Tongala’s injury cloud.
“We were able to get a few favourable matchups, create some mismatches in our forward half which we really benefitted from,” O’Neill said.
“The work our midfielders did to trap the ball forward was key, but every player on the ground contributed.”
For Tongala, Paul Newman added six goals to his growing season total, but was well held for most of the afternoon by Josh Slattery.
Newman was kept to just three goals until late in the final quarter, kicking three in junk time as Mulwala looked to get more minutes into their young players.
O’Neill said a more defensive mindset through the middle of the ground would be a feature of their play in weeks to come.
“Our guys were able to shut down their opponents really well, which then led to them having better opportunities to win clean ball and better opportunities to deliver it forward effectively,” he said.