MFL | Moama to face unbeaten Lions

By Bransen Gibson

May 19, 2022

Hard-pressed: Moama's Callum Doyle holds possession under heavy pressure from his Tongala opponent in round six. Photo: Steve Huntley Photo by Steve Huntley

Moama will be looking to bounce back from its first defeat of the season when it takes on Mulwala this Saturday at Lonsdale Oval.

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The Magpies were handed their first of 2022 against Tongala in round six, falling to the Blues by 43 points.

They will face a big test to return to the winner’s list this weekend as they take on the undefeated Lions.

Moama assistant coach Jye Warren said he was expecting a difficult encounter against a strong Mulwala team.

“It’s going to be a pretty tough one,” Warren said.

“Mulwala have done some pretty impressive recruiting over the break and they are obviously haven’t lost a game yet.

“We know that Mulwala are a really, really good outfit. It’s going to be a tough one, but I feel that with our depth we can really put it to them and hopefully get the win.”

The Lions are 6-0 so far this season and are coming off an 87-point win over Finley.

The clash against Moama will be Mulwala’s first big test of 2022, with its other six games all coming against sides in the bottom half of the ladder.

Warren said there were some key areas from the loss against Tongala that his side would be looking to improve on.

“I felt that going inside 50 we didn’t give our forwards an opportunity to capitalise in front of goal, we were a bit scrappy with our forward entry,” he said.

“We didn’t have a spell from training, we trained pretty hard on Tuesday and Thursday and worked on those facets of the game that we needed to work on which was our skills going inside 50.

“I feel that we’ve really sharpened up and that and that will definitely be the big improvement this weekend against Mulwala.”

Both Moama and Mulwala enjoyed a rest last weekend with the Murray League’s split round. The week off came at a good time for the Magpies who had been hampered by injuries and illness in the past few weeks.

The Pies will be bolstered by the return of Josh Vick and Josh Pell in the backline, with hopes some other players could also be back in the side.

“We’re lucky enough that we get a couple of guys back,” Warren said.

“We’re pretty happy with the way those guys trained on Tuesday night, it’s going to be a bit of an improvement from the previous game against Tongala, I can guarantee that.”