But for Nathalia’s Liam Evans, it was really all in a day’s work.
Getting up early in the first term thanks to Charlie Sheehan, Nathalia pressed hard into the Barooga defence, making a respectable 6.2 to Barooga’s 3.1.
Before the first half ended, the game had become increasingly one-sided, with Nathalia collecting a clutch of majors to take to the change rooms at half-time with a 29-pt margin.
Barooga swooped on a further five behinds in the second half, adding another major to the scoreboard.
But it was too little, too late as Nathalia put its foot to the pedal in earnest and opened the margin to a devastating 93 points at full-time - Nathalia 22.6 (138) to Barooga 6.9 (45).
Samuel Macheda, Nick Dore, Jake Murphy, Kane Rattray, Codi Bowden and Steven Stallion were named as Barooga’s best.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Liam Evans was named in Nathalia’s best alongside Clancy Congues, Tom Nihill, Chris Brown, Brodie Ross and Harry McDonald.
A big part of the damage inflicted on Barooga was done courtesy of Evans, who, with 10 majors, confirmed his stature as one of the Murray League’s goal-kicking weapons.
But it wasn’t the first time this season that Evans reached double digits in front of goal.
His first bag of 10 majors came in his side’s round five contest against Finley.
His most recent efforts against Barooga pushed his goal-kicking total to 49 majors in eight games this season.
The statistic puts him at the top of the Murray League list of goalkickers, oceans ahead of Congupna’s Kyle Mueller who sits on second with 31 majors so far.
In round six last year, Evans also booted 11 goals against Echuca United.
But even that holds little water when set against his 17-goal riot against Rumbalara in round fifteen of 2023.
Some speculated last year - and not without reason - that Evans was just kicking goals for fun.
The question remains: is that the case again this year?
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