Sharpshooter Bowen boots Kangaroos to victory at home

During round nine of the AFL North West men's competition on Saturday, the Kangaroos continued their trend of improvement with a big win over the Inverell Saints.

The Swans, meanwhile, fell to their second loss for the season against the New England Nomads in Armidale.

Given their current form, Kangaroos coach Richard Nicholl believes the upcoming clash between the two sides will be much closer than their first.

"I think the game will be very different, a lot closer," Nicholl.

"Whether they're down on confidence, they've lost a couple now. We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose, but we'll have a little bit more confidence going into that game."

The Kangaroos won Saturday's game by 70 points, 19.7.121 to 8.3.51. But anybody watching the game live knew that the margin felt much closer, particularly in the first half.

Midway through the second quarter, Inverell drew to within seven points of Tamworth's lead and looked to have the run of momentum.

However, a half-time tactical adjustment gave the Kangaroos more offensive options, and they ran roughshod from that point on.

"At halftime, I felt like we had the game on our terms," Nicholl said.

"But we made a couple of changes in structure at halftime. I felt like we were a bit one-person focused up forward with Elliot [Bowen], so we moved a couple of other players forward and that really changed the game for us."

Bowen's return to the forward line had an immediate impact for the Kangaroos, as he booted eight goals to lead his side's scoring.

"Elliot coming back into the team [had a big impact on the scoring]," Nicholls said.

"He's a very good shot at goal."

Given the situation of the game in the first half, and the near shut-out in the second, Nicholl was thrilled with the Kangaroos' performance.

"I think that's the equivalent of the Armidale performance [in round seven, where the Kangaroos beat the Nomads by 56 points], if not slightly better," he said.

"I think we had it on our terms, like in that third quarter. We changed the structure a little bit and they couldn't do anything, so you've got to be happy with that as a coach."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: