After last year’s grand final disappointment, Congupna is battle-hardened and ready for business

The wait is double if you count the previous campaign.

The Road’s stellar 2023 season ended in heartbreak at the hands of Mulwala, but after dusting off, picking each other up and filling in the missing puzzle pieces, it’s all systems go for Saturday’s Murray Football League grand final.

Finley awaits, and Congupna is more than ready.

Bingham indicated he’s changed tack from the 2023 approach, with it being the club’s first senior grand final appearance in 25 years.

Then it was about playing it safe and being cautious.

Now, they’re letting rip.

“It’s sort of a different approach this year; we’ve trained a lot harder compared to last year when we somewhat wrapped ourselves in cotton wool, so we’re much more hardened and ready to go,” he said.

“We have got a full list to choose from for this year, which makes competition for spots.

“It's a really exciting time of the year. One thing we're expressing with our players is to enjoy the occasion a lot more.

“We know what’s in store, and you train for nine months for these occasions, so we’re just going to really enjoy what’s to come.”

Bingham stood and watched as The Road fired to a quarter-time lead in the 2023 grand final, only for the Lions to bare their teeth in the second half and spoil Congupna’s day to the tune of a 33-point defeat.

Was there time for sulking? Hardly.

Instead, Bingham took the full-time coaching reins from mentoring partner Kevin O’Donoghue and set about assembling a bona fide MFL super team, enlisting the services of Goulburn Valley League jets such as Billy Cooper and Kyle Mueller.

“Our whole preparation and lead-up, we got some senior guys in that had played GV level,” Bingham said.

“We probably came away from last year and identified some areas we needed to cover, and those are the guys that we got in.”

A hearty recruiting drive and measured pre-season paid dividends as The Road ripped Mulwala to shreds in a payback-fuelled 2024 season opener, belting the Lions by 58 points with Mueller booting six majors on debut.

Since then, those two trends have remained linear with Congupna.

Bingham’s side has continued to dominate and the ‘Wiz’ has kept the goals flowing, finishing the regular season on 95 before kicking four in the semi-final.

Perched on 99 goals, the stage is set for Mueller to ton-up for the first time in his career — in a grand final, no less.

But while threats such as Mueller have beeped on Finley’s radar for some time now, there’s no one master key to unlock the Cats in Bingham’s eyes.

“I’m going to go the boring approach — we find our list is quite even across the board,” he said.

“We don’t rely on one or two guys; we’ve primed everyone for this one and we’ve had weeks off, so everyone is cherry ripe to go.

“We don’t base our game style depending on one or two guys; we feel like we’ve got weapons across the whole ground so that if one or two are down or getting a bit of attention, the others will step up.

“That’s how we’ve modelled our game style this year.”

Complete across the board, Congupna is confident — not cocky — going up against Finley.

Beating the Cats won’t be a stroll in the park, with the likes of ex-GWS and Carlton man Mark Whiley and key forward Tom Lang (58 goals) running amok, but after a 16.9 (105) to 11.10 (76) victory over Finley in the semi-final, Bingham won’t be taking any backward steps at Moama Recreation Reserve on Saturday.

“You’ve got to go in confident to a grand final,” he said.

“They’re very contested-based, a very honest team and well-drilled as well. We’ve played them three times now, and the score is two-one.

“We know what’s in store, what their strengths are, and we hope that the way we want to go can exploit them.”