Great Western had plenty of reasons to smile on Saturday night after it easily defeated neighbouring rival Ararat Eagles in the Mininera and District Football League.
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Buoyed by the return of several key players and going in confident, the Lions never looked in doubt as they powered they way to a comprehensive 81-point victory.
This was by far Great Western’s biggest winning margin of the season and brought praise from coach Andrew Bach.
“We always went into this match confident, but the Eagles had been playing some pretty good football leading up to Saturday,” he said.
“Also being on the big ground (Alexandra Oval), meant we would have to be smart and stick to our structure, otherwise it could easily have come unstuck for us.”
Kicking against a strong breeze, Great Western struggled to impact on the scoreboard early in the match, but the defence once again stood tall and ensured the Eagles were not allowed to open up a big lead.
They did lead by five points at the first change, but confidence was high in the Great Western camp that if they could run and make use of the wind, they would be well out in front by half time.
It took the first half of the second term for Great Western to break the shackles, but once they did, the floodgates opened. They piled on eight goals in a dominant display while keeping the Eagles scoreless and went in at half time with a 47 point lead.
Bach pleaded with his players to keep running and keep working for each other, because he knew the Eagles would come hard after half time.
The Eagles did kick three goals for the term, thanks mainly to the work of Tom Taurau and Zac Jenkins, but Great Western landed a couple of blows of their own and although wasteful in front of goal, they managed to extend their lead to 51 points at the final change.
Great Western once again kept the Eagles scoreless against the breeze in the final term and piled on four goals of their own to run out winners in the end by 81 points.
Nick Dunford dominated his wing, constantly feeding key forwards including Tim Shalders, which kicked seven goals, while Ben Newson led the charge from defence and the consistent BJ Burton had plenty of the football again.
Bobby Garley was also dominant in defence and repelled numerous attacks, while Aaron Williams controlled play through the centre and Josh McCartney provided another key target up forward, booting four goals. McCartney’s younger brother Jayden was also solid.