CONGUPNA has ended Numurkah’s finals dreams after recording a comfortable 67-point win at Memorial Park on Saturday.
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With the scores level at half-time, The Road lifted another gear in the second half to run out with a deserved 16.17 (113) to 6.10 (46) victory, its 11th of the season.
With two games remaining and a maximum of eight points up for grabs, the seventh-placed Blues can’t make the top six even if they win their final two home and away games, against Rumbalara and Deniliquin, respectively.
The win lifted sixth-placed Congupna to 12 points above Numurkah and coach Mark O’Meara says if his side can keep up its form it can move above Cobram and Finley and into the top four.
“I don’t think it’s going to matter who we play in finals but I think for our group it’s nice to know if we get the right results in the next couple of weeks, we could get into fourth position,” O’Meara said.
Congupna led by eight points at quarter-time but by the long break Numurkah, through the efforts of Jack Miechel, Chris Oliver and Mitchell Jones, had worked its way back into the game and levelled the scores.
But Congupna was ruthless in the second half, setting up the win by kicking 11.12 to 1.5, thanks to the brilliant work of Eamon Reeves, Shane Bensch, Mitchell Sidebottom, Kaine Greening and Tyson Sidebottom.
“We moved Tyson Sidebottom out of the midfield and threw him to centre half-forward where he was instrumental with setting up a lot of goals,” O’Meara said.
“Lachie Baldwin and Mitch Brett were quite handy and we got a few goals from forward pressure.”
O’Meara said the key to the second-half onslaught was the clearances.
“The first half was tight and messy,” he said.
“Both teams battled to get any real control with the windy conditions.
“I just said to our boys that they needed to lift their intensity and have real committed efforts.
“I think we were a little bit better at ground level.”
Elsewhere, Tom Beams was named best-afield and Dylan Robinson and Thomas Wilson both booted six goals as Mulwala thrashed Tocumwal by 162 points.
Ned Morrison was outstanding in Finley’s 96-point home win against Barooga, James Coppock was Echuca United’s best in its 54-point win at Deniliquin, Brett Vallender booted nine in Nathalia’s 262-point win at Rumbalara and Simon Rudd was Cobram’s best in its 90-point home win against Tongala.