Mick Watton loves playing in Kootingal.
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Unlike most people, it's not because the Moree Boars captain-coach expects they are in for an easy day - quite the opposite.
It's because he knows that it is one of the grounds where they will be truly, consistently tested, as was the case in the course of their 38-22 victory yesterday in soggy, overcast, and cool conditions.
"At 32-6, most teams would put the flag up and say 'I've had enough'," Watton said of the Roosters.
"But those young kids, they don't feel it and they just keep coming. They make you play the 80, and that's why we like coming here; we know it's a challenge. It doesn't matter if they're running last or first, they make you earn it."
For the first 60 minutes of the game, however, it looked to be relatively smooth sailing for the Boars.
After an attritional opening stanza, Moree gradually took control. The Roosters had trouble managing the visitors' big, aggressive forwards who were followed by backs with vicious pace.
From 14-6 at half time, the Boars stretched their lead to 32-6 in the 59th minute and looked to have put the game out of reach.
But just four minutes later, Roosters captain Logan Howard bashed his way across the line and inspired his side to a comeback that almost pulled off the impossible.
"We started to make a bit of a charge," Kootingal-Moonbi coach Mark Sheppard said.
"[Moree] were a bit flat. When they first started, I thought they didn't look like a real fit side. But we just gave them ball, we didn't fatigue them.
"But I did get a little bit excited. It was good to see, because we did need that bit of a pick up."
And while he was appreciative of the adversity that the Roosters provided in the face of their now six-match win streak to start the season, Watton was unimpressed with how the Boars faded late in the game.
"In that first 20 of the second half, we played a good brand of footy, and then in that last half, I was disgusted," he said.
"It just wasn't good enough."
Nonetheless, they got the win. And, like 2023, the Boars have marked themselves as the competition benchmark early.
But there is one major change that Watton has made after last year, which he believes was part of the reason for their late-season fade: they no longer talk about the win streak.
"We spoke about it last year, and that's why we didn't get the choccies," he said.
"But this year, we haven't spoken about it. We've got a job to do, and hopefully we'll be playing a good brand of footy by the end of the year."
