COHUNA shattered Tyntynder in a classic Anzac Day round clash where the Alan Garden Reserve was in good shape despite the downpour of rain on Friday night.
The Kangas are proving to be a team that will be tough to break defensively as they have won by keeping teams to a score lower than 50 for the past two matches.
Cohuna’s playing coach Jack Geary said it was a great team performance to keep both Tyntynder and Balranald last week to a low score.
“To keep a team to only 30 points away from home is really good,” Geary said.
“Last week, we played against Balranald who weren’t really good, and we kept them down to only two points.
“It shows that if we keep teams to a low score, then we won’t have to rely on our forwards kicking such a big score to win.”
Prior to the contest, Cohuna celebrated Sam McGlone for playing his 100th senior match in Kangas colours along with Noah Hore making his senior debut ahead of the match.
After a special Anzac Day service from Tyntynder, the match began, and there was not much in it after the first quarter.
The Bulldogs kicked one goal and three behinds for a score of nine while Cohuna kicked two goals and two behinds for a score of 14, proving the ground was a touch slippery from the rain.
In the second quarter, it was the Kangas who were starting to pull away from the contest, having a 27 point lead by half-time.
Despite being behind in the contest, Tyntynder’s vice-captain of Elia Ware was putting in a strong performance in the forward line and constantly trying to put the pressure on Cohuna.
He would move into the defensive line for the final few minutes of the first half to try and slow down the Kangas momentum.
In the second half of the contest, Cohuna drove off into the sun with the match in hand and never returned, as they destroyed Tyntynder on both ends of the ground.
The Bulldogs couldn’t manage to kick a goal at all in the third or fourth quarter, proving just how strong the Kangas defensive line is.
The final score at the end of the contest was three goals and 12 behinds for Tyntynder, adding up to 30 points.
Cohuna kicked 17 goals and 12 points, which equals to 114 points.
Best on Ground medal was awarded to Thomas Toma, who snagged three goals for Cohuna.
But Geary said a number of players could have won the medal on the day.
“A lot of the boys could’ve raffled it if I’m being honest,” he said.
“I think Will Lee, despite not getting any accolades played well today against Elia Ware, he is by far Tyntynder’s best players, so Will did well to keep Ware down.
“Ricky Monti I thought had a massive first half, he could’ve won the medal too.
“Brodie Fry despite being his second game with the club played really well too, being a great target down forward.
“But in the end, Thomas was the professional, he played the way we expect him to be playing and he did exactly that today.”
Geary added that overall the game was impressive.
“I thought Tyntynder did pretty well to bottle things up in the first half, they stuck with us and punished us on turnovers,” he said.
“We like to believe that things will eventually open up and that’s what happened, we ended up playing the kind of footy we like to play.
“We don’t have a key forward so we rely heavily on our midfielders for ball movement.
“And small things like putting on pressure, winning the ball in contests, and generating space is crucial for us.”
In a game where ball movement played a key part, that’s where the game was won for Cohuna.
“I like to believe that if we have the ball, and the opposition doesn’t, then they can’t score on us,” Geary said.
“We sort of synthesise our retaining possession and winning the ball.
“If we are in dispute, we do have to sort of win the hard ball, which our midfielders always put their head over and more often than not, they come out on top.”
In next week’s exciting clash of the Central Murray Football Netball League, Cohuna Kangas will be playing host to NNW United.
“We will play with our usual game style on our home turf,” Geary said.
“No need to change the wheel week in and out.
“We will go in with the same mentality we always have, which is retaining the ball, keeping the ball in our hands, and hopefully that will be enough to win.”
SCORES
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final Score |
| Tyntynder | 1.3 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 3.12 | 30 |
| Cohuna Kangas | 2.2 | 8.4 | 12.8 | 17.12 | 114 |
