Goulburn Valley League: Ex-VFL coach John Lamont’s big Mooroopna win

An ex-VFL coach’s Goulburn Valley League club came away with a season defining win on Saturday. Here’s how they did it.

Mooroopna are an improved side under the guidance of former Werribee VFL coach John Lamont. Picture: David Crosling

When it comes to time to reflect on the 2021 season, Mooroopna may point to halftime of Saturday’s game against Euroa where it all turned around.

After a scoreless term into the wind, the Cats found themselves down by four goals against a Magpies side who many believe could feature at the pointy end of the year.

But they rallied to bring the margin back to three points at the final change before producing a monumental effort against the breeze to secure their best win of the season, holding the visitors goalless in the second half.

“If people decided to go home at halftime, we couldn’t have blamed them,” Mooroopna coach John Lamont, who previously coached Werribee in the VFL, said.

“We spoke about that in the rooms during the main break because we were flat and we needed to find the energy from somewhere.

“I made a couple of changes but they weren’t anything extraordinary. All of the credit has to go to the boys for the way they were able to work their way back into the contest and carry on with it.

“This is a very valuable win for our group.”

In the absence of their leading goal kicker Chris Nield, the Cats had to find other avenues to goal with Nathan Baslie, Jai Carn and Lucas Caccaviello all kicking two apiece.

What impressed Lamont most was his side’s ability to make the most of their opportunities in front of goal.

“Early in the contest we probably didn’t get as many inside 50s as we would have liked,” he said.

“Euroa were really strong in the air and caused us a few problems. To have 14 scoring shots in the second half after just four in the first was really pleasing.

“Tristan Davies didn’t play for Euroa so that probably even things out with Chris missing the game as well.”

Mooroopna now sit well on track to win more than five games in a season for the first time since 2015, with three wins to its name from seven rounds.

While the Cats will also be hoping to push for a return to finals footy having missed every year since 2014.

But first they’ll have to deal with a week off this coming weekend.

“Some people see it as a negative after our win but I think it’s a good thing,” Lamont said.

“We’ve had 10 weeks of footy, including three practice games, so the boys need some time off after missing out last year.

“We’ll have a light week on the track then reassess next week.”

A trip to the undefeated Seymour awaits the Cats on May 29.

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