FARRER FILES: TRYC MAGPIES

2015 Result:   Premiers (finished regular season 2nd on the ladder)

Home & Away:    11 wins; 5 losses
Finals Form:   Won qualifying final against North Wagga
                     Won major semi-final against EWK
                     Won grand final against EWK

Club Best & Fairest:    Mitch Ward
Rising Star:    Harrison White

Snapshot: 
Life doesn’t get much better than this, sailing into Christmas with a premiership under your belt and optimism for the New Year that you’ll be well-placed – at the least – when it comes to defending it.
The Rock-Yerong Creek enjoyed a victory defined by resilience; a performance written by those football clichés never-say-die and take-your-opportunities. Not to mention courage.
The 2015 success was sealed by a couple of key goals in the dying minutes of a grand final. But it was arguably a 2014-15 flag for the Magpies – a premiership campaign that began in the depths of the previous winter, when it became apparent they wouldn’t be playing finals, and needed to rebuild.
For most of the home-and-away season, the Pies were suitably sitting in second. Unable to beat East Wagga-Kooringal in both meetings, they were also unable to match the Hawks’ consistency week-in week-out. But for the most part they looked a cut above everyone else. Only three other losses – to Marrar, Coleambally and Temora (all away) – blotted their record. Then, come finals, it all came together for the Pies, finishing the year with back-to-back wins over the Hawks to regain the Farrer League title.
There’s a changing of the guard in on-field leadership for 2016 but TRYC lose nothing. Premiership-winning coach Dave Pieper stays on as a player, but hands the reins over to cult figure Andy Carey and former Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong defender Andrew Clarke who will co-coach together.  The signing of another backman Mitch Stephenson from Wodonga Raiders (and previously Coolamon) only adds to the Pies’ experience and leadership. And an amazing grand final victory means they’ll take more than memories into next year, with the experience gained likely to prove invaluable for individual development.

Highlights: 
Robertson Oval mark I was good – an upset against the previously undefeated EWK in the major semi-final, to book a grand final berth. But mark II a fortnight later was something else – fighting back from a goalless first quarter and a seemingly hopeless situation in the last term, all with a key forward virtually immobile with a broken bone in his lower leg.
Coach Pieper was almost speechless at the end of the game. Three months on, he’s getting it.
“It’s definitely sunk in. It was unreal. They don’t come around very often,” Pieper said.
Indeed – it was his first success as a coach, and done in dramatic fashion.
“Just the way it panned out – everyone you talk to they say: ‘You lost it, you had it, you lost it and then you ended up in front at the right time’,” Pieper recalled.
The Andy Carey story is the stuff of legend, after the full forward injured his calf in a marking contest with veteran Hawk Chris Jackson in the first quarter, on one of the very few occasions the ball headed into TRYC’s forward 50.
“He came to me at quarter-time and said, ‘It’s no good. It definitely feels worse than what a normal corkie feels like.’ I told him he’ll just have to work through it but it was worse than what I thought.”
Pieper was well off the mark, with X-rays days after the decider revealing a broken bone in Carey’s leg. He stayed on the ground until late in the fourth quarter, tying down Jackson in the goal square and somehow hobbling to four goals.
Pieper said he couldn’t have asked more of his players, who backed him and bought into their game plan. He knew they had the experience and talent to compete for a flag but was rapt in their ability as a team to take their performance up a notch during the finals.
“We never spoke about premierships but we knew that with the list we had, we’d probably underachieved if we didn’t make the last week of the finals,” Pieper said.
“And once you get there well, anything can happen on the day.”
It did.

Lowlights:  
On-field, the loss to Marrar in round three at Robertson Oval still rankles Pieper.
“Losing Anzac Day (eve) was very disappointing – that hurt us for a while. We spoke afterwards about there being a lot of new faces and we just didn’t see blokes take on that leadership. That was probably my fault for not picking up on that. It kicked us into gear a bit.”
But Pieper said the biggest disappointments fall on the personal side of coaching, in particular seeing teammates miss out.
There was Drew Campton missing the season with a knee injury and Gus Keogh was restricted to just two games due to multiple injuries. While Ted Fellows was the hard luck story in grand final week. He was a late call-up for the major semi-final victory against EWK when Dale Hugo failed to recover from illness, and made way for his teammate’s return on grand final day.
“It’s always hard when you’ve got a successful side – and by that, I mean a side that’s in the top three or four – because you’ve got blokes that miss out. The hardest part is Teddy Fellows is a good mate of mine and having to miss out on the grand final…
“He took it well, he knows footy, he’s a footy bloke and he understands but it’s still always hard a decision like that.”

Surprise Packet:  
When the Farrer League reached the semi-finals weekend, there were some handy ruckmen among the last four teams. Scott Higgins was probably the least well-known of a group that included Nick Hull, Jeremy Luff and Dean Pound. But his effort throughout the year was continually praised by Pieper.
“Well we didn’t know what to expect from Scotty. I knew when he played at West Wyalong he showed potential but that’s a different league. But from all reports he just needed to be guided and pointed in the right direction, footy-wise. And he definitely came along in leaps and bounds.”
Higgins started in the seconds but once promoted, made the first grade ruck role his own. He gave the Pies options when Josh Meiselbach was around, and when the former Collingullie star was unavailable for weeks in the middle of the year, Higgins rose to the challenge.
“He’s only 18 and shouldered ruck duties all year,” Pieper said.
“It was really enjoyable for me to see a bloke apply himself and do whatever was asked.”
Pieper was also rapt in Charlie White: “He found his spot as a back pocket. He loves playing in the middle but he’s a better player in the back pocket and if he can apply himself in that spot again, he’ll be bigger and better down back.”

Areas to improve:  
New co-coach Carey isn’t headlining any major changes to the Pies under him and Clarke.
“We must have done something right this year, we’ll be pretty similar. We’re not really focussing on too much,” Carey said.
TRYC have had a get together over a social game of cricket but won’t start training until January. Carey said he and Clarke will get together closer to their pre-season to discuss their. The big full forward has had a couple of runs at Albury Tigers training but isn’t going flat out yet. He expects to be right in the New Year. Not that he’s intending to be the club’s fitness guru.
“I’m not much of a pre-season person – that’ll be Bullpup’s (responsibility).”
But the under-stated Carey knows that defending a premiership is harder than winning one. He’ll be aware that East Wagga-Kooringal had their measure for much of the season until those remarkable Robertson Oval victories. And most of their rivals are picking up players.
The Pies will need to improve their consistency throughout the season. And while their work running out of the backline was superb, and Carey and Mitch Ward presented serious headaches for every opposition, there were times in games when the ball stopped coming out of the middle. Not least of all in the grand final when it was only the effort of their backline in repelling constant attacks, and the Hawks failing to take opportunities, that prevented the game getting right away from them.

What to look forward to:  
Pieper points out that although they had plenty of experience the Pies also had a handful of young players still learning the game.
He’s enjoyed coaching but with work responsibilities taking priority, he hands over to Clarke and Carey and is conscious of not crowding out their roles. But he’s excited to see what TRYC are capable of.
“The young blokes are always the difference. I’ve always said in finals it’s how your young blokes go that matters, that’s what will win you finals,” Pieper said.
“It’ll be good to have a bit more time to look after young blokes and spend a bit of time with them, when you’re not worrying about coaching. Guys like Harry White, he’s only 17, and Kieran Fair. These blokes have got plenty of enthusiasm and it keeps you young and keen.”
Carey is banking on the experience of 2015 in what shapes as a tough season.
“I think everyone’s picked up, pretty well, so I think it’s going to be pretty even. There won’t be any easy games, as such,” Carey said.
However, the recruitment of the two backmen in Clarke and Stephenson will complement a team that has plenty of grand final-winning experience.
“Everyone’s had that experience now and everyone’s hanging around,” Carey said.
He also points out that with Keogh and Campton virtually missing the entire season, there’s another couple of new faces who are virtual recruits adding depth to the Magpies, who also made the reserves grand final last year.