Sport
5 May, 2026
Nhill recover to bank win
Nhill recovered from a challenging and low-scoring first quarter to beat Minyip Murtoa by more than 40 points at the final siren on Saturday.
The Burras, despite leading at the end of the first quarter after having an advantage with the wind, were down by 16 points at the big break and 31 points going into the final term.
Scores at the end of the game were the Burras 6.9 (45) to the Tigers 12.16 (88).
"We'll take the win, but it wasn't much of a day for a game of footy," co-coach of Nhill, Jake McQueen, said.
"Minyip Murtoa put up a fight, but we had a better final half."
With scores 1.3 (9) to 0.1 (1) at quarter time in favour of Minyip Murtoa, McQueen said he was happy with the efforts of his side to keep the Burra's to a low score.
"The first quarter they had the wind, and it was probably a four or five goal breeze, so we did well to keep them to just the goal," the co-coach said.
"I'm actually pleased with our first quarter; we defended well as the footy was in their forward half the majority of that quarter."
With the beeze in the second term, McQueen said they needed to find the big sticks.
"We had our heads down, bums up. We had a good quarter, so we were happy with that as well," admitted McQueen.
"In the last half, we adapted to the conditions well, we tightened it up a bit with both our defence and offence, and had a good half - and that shows on the scores.
"We did kick away a bit, but credit to Minyip, they hung in there as long as they could, but we just got over the top of them in the end."
Lachlan Gill and Tom Wheaton led the way for the Tigers, with Drew Schneider their go-to in the forward 50, finding the big sticks three times.
McQueen said Gill and Wheaton in particular were in brilliant form on Saturday.
"Tom, who went to the midfield, had a cracking game," McQueen said.
"Lachie, he's a fella we got from SANFL, and he is playing off half back and racked them up on Saturday as well.
"They were definitely a couple of standouts."
Jack Boschen and Samuel Griffiths were the Burras' better players, while their goals came from six different players.