Barellan delivered one of the upsets of the season – and a win for their supporters to savour – when they edged out The Rock-Yerong Creek in a thriller on Saturday.
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With their second win of the season, the Two Blues put paid to the Magpies’ hopes of sneaking into the top three next week.
The 12.7 (79) to 11.7 (73) win was claimed in time-on when former coach Will Overs kicked his fifth goal of the game.
Current co-coach Dave Curran – who barely had a voice at full-time – said it was a special win.
“It was,” Curran said. “It was amazing to put four quarters together.
“We’ve been in the game at quarter-time most weeks but haven’t been able to put scoreboard pressure on.
“But our forwards kicking straight in the first quarter put us right in the game and the special thing today was we were able to continue on with it for four quarters.”
Barellan led by two goals at the first break before the Pies went two goals up by half-time.
But the home side weren’t about to be denied. They dug themselves out of a 15-point hole late in the third term, kicking five of the last seven goals of the game to grab a courageous win.
“Look, to beat The Rock – I don’t know if we’ve come within 100 points of them in three years. So to knock them off – it’s a special win for the club as whole.
“I said to the blokes, they’ve just proven to themselves what I’ve been saying they’ve been capable of all year.
“And it’s been a tough week for us – we’ve had a lot of injuries. We even had to pull a bloke out of the twos at quarter-time to play seniors, we had our backs to the wall, so it was a credit to the boys to play the way they did.”
Jordie Pettit had another big game in the centre for Barellan while Overs and James McCabe were vital and club president, the veteran Jeff Mickan, was outstanding in the ruck all day.
“He turned back the clock,” Curran said.
Luke Hillier and Tom Yates were the pick of the Pies, who will look forward to the return of big man Lachie Hunter and midfielder David Pieper for the elimination final after next week’s bye.
The result gives Barellan a chance of avoiding the wooden spoon, but they’d need to produce an even bigger turn-up at Marrar next week against the minor premiers.