By RUSSELL BENNETT
ELLINBANK AND DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE
REVIEW – ROUND 14
WILLIAM Hazlitt was an 18th century philosopher, writer, critic and commentator – and he was also responsible for a quote that the boys at the Nar Nar Goon footy club would be wise to remember: “Prosperity is a great teacher, adversity a greater”.
No-one really knew how the boys from Spencer Street would play on Saturday – their first game since Tom Hallinan stepped down as coach.
But still being well and truly in the thick of the finals race, they had to muster something at The Crows’ Nest in Longwarry.
And what they produced – a 70-point win, 20.7 (127) to 8.9 (57) – would have won them plenty of admirers across the league. Not that they’d care about that though – they just want to play footy.
Chris Jones stepped up into the coaching role the day after the decision was made that Hallinan wouldn’t continue. He’d had plenty of experience in footy, but – amazingly – prior to this season none of it in coaching.
“I got the senior boys in and asked what they wanted out of the rest of the year,” Jones told the Gazette.
“They said they wanted to have fun with their footy and free-wheel a bit more, and I think that was evident on the weekend.
“They played with a lot more freedom, hence why we were able to score so heavily.
“I put it on the leadership group. I said: ‘What do you want to do here? Do you want to flip this upside down and start again, or stay with the same game-plan that Tommy implemented?’.
“There’s nothing wrong with Tommy’s game-plan – the boys just wanted to add their own little twist on it to make it a bit more free-flowing.”
The result of that on Saturday was having youngsters Mitch Virtue, Cody Andrews and Tyler Joosten step right up to the plate.
“All the boys were 100 per cent behind Tom and they still are, really,” Jones said.
“But I also put it on the younger guys to realise they’re not in the team to make the numbers up, and to start to have some creativity and express themselves.
“When young guys feel a part of the side, you get the best out of them for sure.
“I’m super happy with the guys who’re 21 and under – they all contributed better than they have all year and no-one was afraid to make mistakes.”
Chris Langley booted nine goals on Saturday – finishing the good work done further up the ground by the Goon’s midfield in a relentless, attacking style. The experienced Chris Adams and skipper Brent Hughes also shone, as did Sam Van Der Zalm and Brendan Hermann.
But the biggest coaching masterstroke of the day was actually the brainchild of the leadership group, rather than the coaching staff.
“I sat down with the selection committee during the week and we put a team on paper,” Jones said.
“I floated the idea of getting our five senior guys into selection before we finalised the team. I threw a few names at them and asked them where they saw them fitting into our side.
“Tyler Joosten was one of them, and to be honest I had him locked in at full-back for the weekend, but it was unanimous from the leadership group that they wanted to throw him in the ruck. So I went with their gut-feel and the young bloke is just a competitor – he’s an absolute beaut. He may not have won all the tap outs, but what he does on the ground in his second, third and fourth efforts is super.
“He was put in by the boys and it paid dividends.”
Jones admitted he wasn’t sure how the playing group would come out on Saturday, given the highly unusual circumstances.
“I was just hoping it was going to galvanise the boys, and it definitely has,” he said.
“I was worried the boys would play within themselves, but they just put it on themselves for the next three, four, or five weeks – however long we have left this season – to play for each other. They’re a tight bunch of boys, they’re all mates and it’s as much camaraderie from them as I’ve seen this season.
“They’re going to have a real crack, and we’ll see if we can’t win a final.”
Tye Holland (two goals) and Nick Redley were among Longwarry’s best on Saturday, but the result was a real blow to the Crows finals chances with the side level with the eighth-placed Kooweerup on points, but 23 percentage points behind.
