FARRER FILES: COLEAMBALLY BLUES

COLEAMBALLY

2014 Finish: 4th

Home & Away: 12 wins; 4 losses

Finals Form: Lost qualifying final to EWK.

Lost minor semi-final to Marrar.

Club Best & Fairest: Dean Pound

Best First Year Player: Brayden Scarr

Telstra Rising Star: Mitch Dunbar

Snapshot:

What a roller-coaster. Mitch Carroll was charged with reinvigorating Coleambally and delivered – with the arrival of Drew Kenna and the homecoming (on weekends at least) of Dean Pound, the Blues were more than the big improvers of 2014. For much of the back half of the season they looked headed for the minor premiership and were firming as favourites for the flag.

An unlucky draw meant ‘finals footy’ started early for Coleambally, having to play North Wagga, Marrar and East Wagga-Kooringal in the final three rounds of the season. They were the only finals-bound team that had to play two other top-five sides three times during the home-and-away season, and their dreams began to come unstuck at Gumly Oval in round 16. Beaten by nine goals by East Wagga-Kooringal, they missed out on the minor premiership and had to back up against the Hawks a week later. The qualifying final at Langtry Oval wasn’t much better for Coly… it ended in a five-goal defeat and injuries to backman Fred Stephan and ruckman-forward Pound.

A week later, the Blues ran into a Marrar team playing one of its best games of the year and a season that had promised so much shuddered to a halt. There were some individual honours, with Pound a convincing winner of the Clear Medal while midfielder Kenna edged out his big teammate for the Graincorp Player of the Year award.

With the exception of Stephan who returns to his studies in Geelong, Carroll is confident of retaining his list – and hopefully adding a couple of key players – ensuring the Blues will be a force again next season.

Highlights:

It was a masterstroke from president Shane Mannes to convince Dean Pound to make the six-hour round trip home from Swan Hill every week. The youngest of the five Pound brothers, the 28-year old dominated the competition on his return, having honed his skills playing with Tyntynder in the Central Murray Football League. Despite missing four games, he polled 28 votes (including five best-on-grounds) to comfortably win the league best and fairest… 12 votes clear of runners-up Ben Absolum and Kenna.

“For him to miss four games, and still win the league count, like that – he’s had a real good year,” says Carroll. “In our club votes it wasn’t that clear, it was a bit closer between him and Drew. But he’s just an outstanding player. And the big thing is he makes a lot of other players better, he brings a lot of others into the game.”

The outstanding form of Pound and Kenna made the rest of the competition sit up and take notice of Coleambally, as the Blues featured in finals footy for the first time since joining the Farrer League. That was a big thing for the club. “Just around the club, like attendances at the game and our presentation night – that was up about a hundred people,” says Carroll. “A bit of success was great for the club. To have three grades in finals, that was good.”

Lowlights:

The fact their season ended with a whimper rather than a bang – failing to win a final – took some of the gloss off an outstanding year. Now a couple of months have passed, the coach prefers to see the upside of the year. ““It was disappointing that we didn’t win a final, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom. A lot of blokes got to play in their first finals games, and we had a big improvement so there’s plenty to work on for next year.”

The hamstring injury to Pound in the finals was a devastating blow for a team without a back-up option, and cruelled Coly’s chances of picking themselves up from those back-to-back losses to the Hawks.

Surprise Packet:

Dean Pound was a standout, but Kenna – who had previously played in the RFL with Narrandera – was also outstanding, thriving after being given an opportunity on the ball. “A lot of blokes from Narrandera would ask after him and when I told them he was in our best every week, they started coming out to watch,” says Carroll. “He’d only ever played on the wing at Narrandera but after a couple of games we got him in the middle and he never looked back. He said he hadn’t played there since the juniors. For the size of him, he’s definitely one of the toughest blokes going around. He was getting flattened in every contest in one game against East Wagga, but he never stayed down or tried to fight back. He just kept getting up and going for the ball. In the body and the mind – not to get worried about being targetted – he’s tough. That’s one of his main attributes.

“He really dominated and I’m pretty sure he’ll be there for us again next year. In the last few rounds he was getting tagged pretty heavily and we didn’t really help him out much. Next year, he’ll know how to handle that a bit more and hopefully we can get him a bit more protection.”

Carroll also mentions Kabe Stockton and Jay Pound for their consistency throughout the season.

Areas to improve:

It mightn’t be a pleasant summer in the MIA, with pre-season looming as a tough one. Carroll wants to build on what the Blues created in 2014 but recognises there is some work to be done to match the likes of the grand finalists. “Yeah I think our fitness. Especially looking at Temora –they’re a very even side across the park, and even sized bodies. East Wagga is a very fit running team. We need to copy them a bit. We can be a good attacking side, but we get caught on the rebound a bit. If there’s a quick turnover we could get caught out.”

What to look forward to:

Next year is a big one, with Coleambally to celebrate 50 years as a football club. The milestone was a big factor in Mannes’ push to improve the Blues’ on-field efforts, with the club wanting to be competitive in its celebration year. Adding to the sense of history, 2015 will also be 10 years since their last premiership, in the Coreen League. Although Carroll recognises it’s going to be a tough competition with Marrar, North Wagga, Temora and East Wagga are all hoping to improve, and The Rock in particular signalling their intention to be competitive again, with a big recruitment drive.

Carroll and Mannes are working on topping up their list, with the priority being some support for Dean Pound. “You’re talking to blokes as soon as footy’s finished. Shane (Mannes) and I are talking three or four times a week – you think we’d be sick of each other! We’re looking for a backman, and another tall forward/ruckman. Dean did most of the rucking all year, he probably did 80 percent. And he obviously went up forward a bit. The thing is he’s so good in both positions, it’d be good if you could have two of him. We don’t want to wear him out, so we’re hoping to get someone who can give him a bit of a break.”

Carroll sees the youngest Pound as a future leader at the club, and with a move home to Coleambally hopefully on the cards early in the new year he could be set for an even better season. As for the team goal, “Hopefully we can be there or thereabouts,” says Carroll. “We want to do top 3 again, but winning a final would be a goal as well. This year would’ve been a big thing to go from second last to the grand final. If we can get to the finals, and hopefully win a final… then maybe get to the grand final, you never know what can happen, we might win one.”