By Ashleigh Williamson
But for all the praise
Eldridge heaped on his
charges, he was still left
to rue missed opportunities
that stopped his
side causing an unlikely
grand final upset.
‘‘We kicked 4.7 in the
second quarter and if
we could have
converted a couple
more of those chances
we may have run over
the top of them,’’ Eldridge
said.
‘‘But it’s always easy
to say that after the
game. To the boys’
credit we fought hard
all year and never gave
in.
‘‘(Fellow co-coach)
Shannon (Keam) and I
are very proud of how
the boys performed.’’
Moama had plenty of
knockers before this
season, particularly
after winning last year’s
minor premiership and
bowing out of finals in
straight sets.
A key player exodus
during the off-season
did little to help the
Magpies’ cause to
return to finals this
year.
Instead of again
recruiting heavily to
cover those losses, this
year’s Moama side primarily
consisted of
home-grown youngsters.
‘‘Young blokes grow
in confidence if there’s
a few experienced guys
around themto lead the
way,’’ Eldridge said.
‘‘We started fairly
slowly. I think we won
one of our first four
games. It was only
about round 10 I started
to realise we were in the
(premiership) mix.
‘‘We were playing
some really good footy
against some good
sides and started to get
on a bit of a winning
streak.
‘‘And the beauty of
our club is we’ve got a
lot of really good young
guys who don’t plan on
leaving next year.’’
Last Modified on 21/09/2009 09:03