The Blues notched 16 scoring shots to Deniliquin’s 18 in the round seven match-ups, but breaking that down into Tongala’s 4.12 (36) to the Rams 11.7 (73) resulted in a strong win for the visitors at Tongala Recreation Reserve.
Tonny was in the goals column first, Sam Cipriani slotting the game's opening major.
Conversely to the final result, it was the Rams who struggled for accuracy early on, kicking six of their seven minor scores in the first term.
The Blues' struggles began in the second period, as the home side went goalless, 0.4, for the period, allowing Deniliquin to surge ahead by 20 at the main break.
This improved slightly on the offensive end for Tongala in the second half, but the Rams also upped their game, kicking a perfect 7.0 in the second half to put to bed any thoughts of a Tonny fightback.
Cipriani (2), Matthew Daniel, and Jedd Turpin kicked the Blues’ majors in the disappointing scoring performance, while Deni’s Charlie Hillier scored impressively with five goals.
Though all is not lost yet, at 2-5 the refreshed 2025 Tongala squad risks losing touch with the finals places unless it can start putting together consecutive wins.
The next opportunity to do that will be on a trip to Mulwala on Saturday, but the 5-2 Lions will be a challenging task for the Blues.
In an interesting trivia note, this is the first time this season that Tongala’s senior football and A-grade netball sides, coached by father-daughter combination Stephen and Grace Hammond respectively, have recorded different results, after the A-graders notched an important win against the Rams.
In the lower grades, the Tongala reserves and under-17s had wildly different results.
The reserves notched a dominant, one-sided victory over Deniliquin in their contest, putting the visitors to the sword 22.11 (143) to 1.3 (9).
Clayton Watson was on song for the Blues throughout all four quarters, kicking nine goals and earning himself best-on-ground honours.
In the under-17s, Tongala suffered a different fate, losing out in a thriller with the Rams 4.10 (34) to 8.5 (53).
Despite leading at half-time, the Blues’ wayward kicking brought them undone with multiple chances going begging.
The reserves and under-17s are still coasting along in their respective competitions, with the former sitting in fourth position and the latter in fifth position, respectively.
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