Kyabram too strong for Mooroopna

With big games against Seymour and Euroa up next, Kyabram coach Paul Newman said it was good to put four points on the board against Mooroopna.

“It is pleasing to walk away with the points,” Newman said.

“The next three rounds we have marked as a crucial period of the season for us, so to tick the first one off is a good start.

“They had a rush at us late, but for the most part of the game I felt like we were in control.”

For the third week in a row, the first term was where Kyabram was able to set the tone for the rest of the match.

The Bombers booted five goals to two in the opening stanza against the Cats and, while Mooroopna outscored the home side across the three ensuing quarters, that opening salvo was too much to overcome.

But the damage could have been greater, with Kyabram’s inaccuracy – 5.5 to Mooroopna’s 2.0 – keeping the Cats within touching distance

“It has been a frustrating two or three weeks, with our inaccuracy in front of goal we just haven’t been able to put teams away when we have had the opportunity,” Newman said.

“Our next thing will be to clean that up and when we do get the opportunity to put the foot on the throat and put a bit of a gap on the scoreboard, we need to be able to do that.

“I think our pressure early and our ball use early in the game was pretty good. We gave our forwards some half-decent looks.

“Our pressure and intent over the last couple of weeks has been building and building and we feel like we are getting there, we just have to tidy up on a few of those errors that are in our control.”

Kyle Mueller continued his good form and was the leading goal-kicker on Saturday after drilling three majors for the second week in a row, with Newman offering praise on three other individuals as well

“He (Mueller) has been excellent. He is playing an all-round game, his defensive stuff has been excellent as well,” Newman said.

“He is coming off a serious couple of injuries last season that he is still dealing with, but he is starting to find his feet.

“Brad Whitford was awesome, he did a lot of intercepting across half-back. Rhys Clark did a lot of tough stuff surging the ball forward and Zac Norris was really good too.”

For Mooroopna, it is the side’s second loss in a row following a 3-0 start to the season, and it was also the second time the Cats have been blitzed in the opening term.

Seymour booted nine goals to nil in the first quarter in round four, while Kyabram had 10 scoring shots to two in Saturday’s opening stanza as well.

Mooroopna coach John Lamont said it was difficult to diagnose why other teams had been able to get the jump on the Cats early on.

“We haven’t started well two weeks in a row,” Lamont said.

"It is the stuff that is really hard to measure – finding your groove, synergy, chemistry, all that stuff. We just aren’t putting it all together, that is all I can put it down to.

“It is very hard to measure and very hard, I think, to really put your finger on. It is just a matter of hitting our straps a bit more.”

As a whole, Lamont said he thought his side’s performance was clearly better than that against the Lions.

“It was a definite improvement. Our contest work was much stronger, so that was a positive,” he said.

“At one stage we were 30-odd points down so again we have shown a bit, but we are just not playing well enough.

“We showed plenty. Our effort was good, there were just too many mistakes at key times. We just allowed the opposition to score or didn’t take our own chances.

“We have to take the improvement, build on that and keep going forward.”