Harney headlines big Echuca United win

“I’ve never been a part of anything like that before,” he said.

“We all know James is a star, he’s shown that for the last two years he’s been with us. Every team tries to double-team him and he still finds a way.

“Yesterday was something from out of this world. You take Rumbalara and where they are sitting and how things are going for them, but still he walked away with 25 goals and four points.

“It was pretty special, and it was a hard 25 too. He had two to three people on him at some points and he was still taking pack marks.

“There wasn’t any ‘Joe the gooses’ over the top, he had to work for a lot of it. It’s easy to get marks, but you’ve still got to kick them, and as I said, 25 goals and four points, it shows it was a pretty brilliant display.”

While Harney’s 25 majors is an astounding individual achievement, Priest was also complimentary of his side, not for how much it won by, but for the manner in which it played.

“We can’t control who we play, but it was good that we won it our way, winning it by how we wanted to play our footy,” he said.

“We made it very clear that if the flood gates did open, we’re not going to be running forward and running around like mad men, we still have to hold a bit of structure.

“That was probably the really pleasing part about that, it wasn’t just all front running, it was all structured how we wanted to play.”

Aside from Harney, Jesse Garner was solid for the Eagles with five goals, while Leyton Shenfield’s work in the midfield went a long way to contributing to the scoreline.

With Deniliquin and Cobram to come in the final two rounds, Priest is sure his side will take a lot of confidence from the win, which reminded him of the strong start the Eagles made to the year.

“How we moved the footy and the way we took the game on really reminded us of our first month,” he said.

“Our first month of footy was brilliant, and we just went away from that. We got back to that sort of movement and it was actually the most pleasing part to see.

“That’s how we’ve got to play when we play against Deni, who are a quality side, and also Cobram who had a really good win on the weekend.

“Confidence is a big word for us. It’s more that we’re ready to attack anything that comes in front of us.

“These two games are as big a game as we’ve had this year, and we really have to put in a good performance.”

The win pushes Echuca United into 10th on the ladder, ahead of Tongala, while also delivering a large percentage boost.