For Tongala, a run of brilliant form between the two byes in the Murray Football Legaue was ended on Saturday afternoon, as the Blues ran into a major roadblock.
Their opponents, Congupna, strengthened their case for a top-eight finish with a 48-point victory.
The Blues were horribly inaccurate in the opening half, booting 2.10, while their opposition kicked 10 majors to put the contest beyond doubt.
Three goals from Coby McCarthy was helpful, but would not be enough to make a major impact on the scoreboard.
Tongala coach Jordan Souter said his team would bounce back from the result.
“We are a little bit disappointed,” he said.
“We simply weren’t able to play our best football on the day. But it’s something we are able to build on from here. We will regroup from what happened, we will learn from our mistakes and find ways to make ourselves a better side going forward as a result.”
Though the scoring for the day was poor, Souter said it wasn’t a major point of discussion after the match.
“There’s no doubt we weren’t happy with how we kicked for goal throughout the game,” he said.
“It was brought up, as were a lot of other things we didn’t do well during play. It’s something we will work on and continue to improve on.”
The Blues now turn their attentions to Barooga at home on Saturday.
While Barooga haven’t been at the peak of their powers in 2019, Souter expects the 2018 grand finalists to provide a huge contest.
“For us it is our biggest clash of the season so far,” he said.
“They’ve been a fantastic side for a long time now, and they are a team who are by no means out of things. So they are a side we want to beat.
“We’ve talked for so long about how our goal was to make the finals this season. It’s looking really good for us now to be there when September starts, so now we look at what we will be like.
“We want to get ourselves into the best possible form as we approach the finals series. We aren’t just a team who are there to make up the numbers when finals comes around, we want to be the best side we can possibly be.”