Congupna has continued its dominant season with an imposing victory over Barooga.
The Road defeated the Hawks by 133 points at home as the Wizard of Congupna stole the show.
Gun forward Kyle Mueller had a day to remember in the red, white and blue, with the small forward kicking 15 goals against the Hawks.
Mueller not only broke his personal record for goals in a game, but he also equalled Congupna’s club record, which he tied with former Roader Chris Drum.
Congupna coach Ben Bingham said Drum’s attendance at the ground to watch Mueller’s career-best day added to the celebrations.
“It was fitting that Drum was at the ground to watch Mueller equal his record of 15,” he said.
“We weren’t ‘Mueller happy’; he was just on the end of our good forward line work.
“I told the boys at three-quarter time he had his 10, and that was the first time he had kicked 10 in a game as well.”
In his first season at Congupna, Mueller is leading the league for goals with 87, 22 goals ahead of the next best, Nathalia’s Liam Evans.
This week, The Road plays last-placed Echuca United in the final match of the home and away season.
The temptation to get Mueller to the 100-goal mark is exciting for Congupna supporters.
However, Bingham said the side couldn’t get hung up on trying to get its star forward to the ton.
Instead, his team will focus on its process — a 13-goal haul for Meuller he hopes will be a happy by-product.
“We will be process-driven this week,” he said.
“If he does get it beautiful, if not, as long as we are working on our process, that’s okay because we only have one week left before finals.
“We can’t afford to flirt with form.”
Regarding the match against Barooga, Bingham said he was happy with how patient his side was when moving the ball inside 50.
“It was pleasing to iron out a few creases of what we have been working on at training,” he said.
“We were pretty straight in front of the big sticks as well, which is a pleasing thing as normally, in those types of games, we make things a bit harder than what they should be.
“(We were working on) our inside 50 ball and forward line connection as we had got (in previous weeks) a lot of inside 50s, but we just lacked how clean our entries have been.
“Yesterday, instead of getting too happy and just bombing it in, we were really patient with our entries.”
Eighth-placed Nathalia has kept its hopes to play finals alive after an impressive 35-point victory over reigning premier Mulwala.
The Purples kicked eight goals to the Lions’ four in the second half to win their ninth game of the year and sit only half a win outside of the top six.
Fellow finals contender Numurkah produced a commanding performance during its win over Echuca United.
The Blues beat the Eagles by 139 points away from home.
However, despite sitting fifth on the ladder and having a healthy percentage, Numurkah is no lock for finals with one round to go and will play third-placed Moama this weekend.
Cobram’s finals chances took a hit, with the Tigers losing to Finley by 10 points at home.
Rumbalara suffered a heavy 94-point loss to Moama, while Deniliquin defeated Tongala by a margin of 59.
This weekend’s round 18 fixture will decide who makes the cut for finals, with every side from fifth-placed Numurkah to eighth-placed Nathalia a chance of missing out on September action.
