OUYEN United playing co-coach Brad Vallance sounded an ominous warning on the eve of Saturday’s SFNL seniors’ clash with South Mildura, saying his fast-improving side will thrive on the bigger ground at Mildura Sporting Precinct.
The Kangas are returning to the kind of form that took them to premiership glory in 2016 and 2018, when Vallance was leading the way.
After getting beaten by 10 goals in their first game of the season against high-flying Wentworth, the Kangas have convincingly won their past two games to surge into third spot with a 3-2 win-loss record.
A key figure in the team’s rise in 2022, after struggling to 1-9 in last year’s truncated season, has been Kaine Stevens, who was recruited from West Adelaide in the SANFL.
The 29-year-old was supreme in the midfield last week, kicking six majors in a best-on-ground performance.
“He went to another level again last weekend, which I didn’t think was possible after his previous few games,” Vallance said.
“He’s obviously getting used to the tempo and style of footy here, and the work he’s doing around the footy club is massive for us.
“He’s like a third coach in the way he runs the midfield.”
Vallance himself is also making a good impact after returning 18 months ago from a brief stint in Darwin.
Aside from his player-coach role at the Kangas, he’s teaching Year 12 at Red Cliffs Secondary College.
“I’m really enjoying being back,” the dual premiership player said.
The inspirational half forward was the club’s first captain in 2016 after the forced merger between arch-rivals Walpeup Underbool and Ouyen United.
This week he gave an insight into what was driving the Kangas’ revival, apart from Stevens’ midfield influence.
“I put it down to hard work on the training track, where we’ve been doing more game-specific stuff around contested ball,” he said.
“We want to be spreading from the contest and when it’s a turnover we want to be pairing off, making sure the opposition are accountable.
“These things go a long way to winning games.
“Last year, we didn’t have the fitness to spread from the contests and when the opposition had the footy, they were just able to run away from us.”
Vallance believes his side is even better on a bigger ground, which is precisely the conditions the Kangas will get at MSP today.
“We’re not an overly big team. We’ve built the team on run and carry and work rate,” he said.
“Our wing rotation is working well for us and they’re able to push out on the bigger grounds where we can utilise our speed and fitness on the outside and run over the top of opposition.”
He gave a shout out to the team’s joint captains, Alex Morrish and Ben Mole, for their key roles in this season’s resurgence.
“Alex taken his game to another level this year,” Vallance said.
“He’s supremely fit and probably our most skilful player, giving us a lot of drive off half back.
“Heath Smith has gone to another level, too. He’s gone from a tagger to a genuine ball winner himself.
“And our most consistent player has been Tim Gloster down back. He’s always playing on the opposition’s best forward and has been doing a great job for us this season.”
The winless Bulldogs will be looking for more impact today from their big three of Tyler Curtis, Matt Lutze and Kevin McDonald.
The trio were hardly sighted in last week’s loss to Mildura at No.1 Oval, where the team only got going in the final 10 minutes of the game.
