Thurgoona’s games record-holder Mark Haydon says it’s taken him more than a decade to ‘get’ the sport.
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“I’m still getting my head around it,” he laughed.
The 30-year-old became an important part of the Bulldogs’ history when he played his 181st senior game against Wahgunyah to pass stalwart Richard Quinn’s mark.
It’s a long way from the kid who grew up playing the two rugby codes in Forbes, central NSW.
“Just having the awareness that you’re going to cop a hit from every direction,” he said.
“In union, it’s straight up and down, you don’t cop a knock from the back or the side.”
Mind you, the background came in pretty handy when he started snapping blokes in half.
“A lot of people have commented on the tackling aspect, I know how to tackle I guess,” he said.
And at 194 centimetres and 92 kilograms, he can do some damage.
Haydon has become one of the league’s top defenders, representing the TDFL a number of times, while he also claimed the club best and fairest in 2012.
It was a special moment when he received a framed jumper, showcasing the club’s desire to celebrate the occasion.
“It’s massive, like I said to the boys, it’s not often you can go to a club and all your best mates are there,” he said.
“It’s a club that holds onto its players, it certainly values that with the retention of players.
“We don’t seem to lose too many, we’re all mates outside of footy.”
The Bulldogs finally broke their grand final drought after gut-wrenching losses.
And working on the theory you’ve got to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going, Thurgoona is desperate to add another as it seemingly charges to the minor premiership.
“We’ve had a pretty cruisy month and we all know that internally,” Haydon said.
“(Co-coach) Jamarl (O’Sullivan) brought us in on Tuesday and said it’s really important we start amping it up.
“He said we need to put these better sides to the sword and we proved that we don’t just beat the bottom sides by a good margin, we can do it to good sides too.”
Since its only loss to Rutherglen in round two, by two points, Thurgoona has clocked up nine straight wins at an average of 97 points.
However, it hadn’t played a team currently in the top five for six weeks until smashing Wahgunyah by 110 points on Saturday.
The Bulldogs face two teams out of the five in Beechworth and Yackandandah with the next big test, the return match against Rutherglen on July 15.
The Cats are the only team to come within five goals of the Bulldogs.
Thurgoona has a one-game break on the Cats.