Hard Yards

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Good things come to those who wait. The juice is worth the squeeze.

Whatever idiom you prefer for a goal being worth the wait, feel free to use it for Barellan.

Alex Lawder is halfway through his debut season as senior coach of Barellan, and while the Two Blues have scraped and clawed for their points so far this season, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I learned pretty early on that Barellan has always been a battler club,” Lawder said.

Everything the club has, its work hard for, and we think we’re building a club that be a really good destination that players want to come play for in the future.”

Lawder’s team may have managed just the two wins so far, but ultimate success is sometimes measured in more than simply wins and losses, especially when trying build something for years to come.

“Everyone is saying we’re improving and on the right track but sometimes it’s hard to look at two wins think you’re on that track,” he said.

“But from where Barellan has been, if you had asked me if I’d take two wins and some strong performances heading into the mid-year break, I probably would have.

That being said, I still don’t back happy with where we’re at, we can certainly be better and have those expectations.”

A big part of Barellan’s future success comes from their travelling contingent finding form, and more importantly, forming a bond.

“It was always going to be hard with eight travellers who aren’t at training throughout the week.

For a small town like Barellan that can be a pretty big chunk of your senior team that isn’t playing and when you’re trying to establish a winning gameplan, it allows a few cracks to show up and we’ve seen that in our games.”

It isn’t just travelling players that have stood up for the Two Blues so far this season.

Emerson Cody and Luke Butcher have been among the young standouts for Barellan.

Cody’s been praised for his eagerness to learn, while Butcher’s return to football and newfound on-field confidence has been infectious.

It’s a growing blend of experience and youth that has the coach growing increasingly confident of a boilover in the second half of the season.

“Our goal for the remainder of the year is to knock off one of the top teams.

I haven’t been quiet about that. We’d love to have a statement win but to do that we cant afford to switch off for quarters at a time like we have in games so far.”

But a second half surge starts with one game, and luckily for Barellan, they find themselves in a position to inch closer to an unlikely finals berth in their first two rounds after the recent bye.

“Our first two games are huge. We have the Jets and then CSU. They both sit ahead of us on the ladder and I’d like to come out of those games with two wins.”