After an arm wrestle in the opening term, the Eagles were able to put some space between them and the Rats and maintained that position for the remainder of the game to run out winners 14.18 (102) to 13.9 (87).

Ararat was out to attack from the first quarter and joint coaches David Hosking and Andrew Louder made the bold move to start power forward Beau Cosson on the wing and number one midfielder Daniel Mendes deep forward in the hope of catching Warrack off guard.

While the Eagles were the first to hit the scoreboard, Mendes looked to be right at home in the new position when he opened the Rats' account courtesy of a bullet pass from Aaron Searle.

"We just thought we'd mix the team up and probably try and throw the opposition off a little bit," Louder said.

"I think it worked okay, I don't know if Beau's influence was as much as it had been but I think having Dan up forward gave us a different look and he was able to score early."

Ararat took the lead when skipper Alan Batchelor combined with Matt North, but the home side soon hit back with consecutive majors.

Goals to Searle and Jack Ganley saw the margin reduced to a point by the first change, and Louder said it was the most competitive the Rats had looked in a first quarter in more than a month.

"Our ball use going forward was better. I thought kicking it longer into an open forward line seemed to be working whereas previous weeks we'd tended to overuse the ball and go too short," he said.

"On previous weeks' form it was probably our best start."

Things quickly went awry for the visitors in the second term as the Eagles found another gear to kick four goals to Ararat's one.

Louder said the ball was delivered quickly into Warrack's forward-50, which had the defenders scrambling.

"I think they started getting on top through the midfield a bit, which put added pressure onto our backline," he said.

"The backmen just didn't seem to maintain their composure like they had in previous weeks.

"We were probably lucky that they were quite inaccurate in the second quarter (4.7) because that kept us in the game at that point.

"The feeling at halftime was that we could get back into it and win the game, we just needed to go out and work a lot harder. There are still some players that aren't working as well as they have been and if we were going to get back into it they had to lift."

While Searle managed to score his second goal of the afternoon early in the premiership quarter, the margin threatened to blow out with the next three majors going the Eagles' way.

Ararat refused to cave however and fought its way back, first through a long bomb from Peter Thompson on the 50-metre arch and then a nice goal from Ganley on the run.

Another two majors from the Rats had the Eagles' lead slashed to a manageable 16 points as the quarter moved into red time, but a costly error as Ararat exited the backline saw Peter Weir score his second goal to again give Warrack some breathing room.

The Rats needed the first goal of the final quarter if it was any chance of victory and Mendes delivered in the opening minutes.

There were further opportunities to peg back the margin, but the visitors struggled to convert and when the Eagles kicked back-to-back goals midway through the term any hope of a stirring Rats' win was dashed.

"Our forward line didn't function as well as it had in the third. They still worked hard, but we just couldn't capitalise," Louder said.

"I understand that Warrack had more shots on goal than us and they missed some easy ones too, but we continually miss set shots that we should kick.

“We kicked 3.6 in the last quarter and on viewing the game that would have kept us well and truly in it and could have even won us the match.”

Louder praised the efforts of Searle (four goals), Mendes (three) and Ganley (two) who all delivered when their team needed them.

The loss sees the Rats clinging to fifth position on the ladder halfway through the split round, but with Dimboola to play the winless Nhill this Saturday, Ararat appears likely to drop outside the top five for the first time this season.

The Rats will face the Roos in a fortnight’s time.

“I think this break has come at a good time for a few of our players to get over their sore bodies,” Louder said.

“We have to come out with all guns blazing against Dimmy and be 100 percent fit. If we had have played them this week we would’ve been a couple down I think, whereas the break may allow us to have our better players right to go.

“We need to take them on, we can’t let Dimboola intimidate us which they have done in the past. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”