A DOMINANT first quarter on the road set up a massive win for Miniyip-Murtoa against Ararat in round four.
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The Burras were all over a young Rats side early before eventually registering a 22.16 (148) to 7.2 (44) victory.
Minyip-Murtoa coach Damian Cameron labelled it his side’s most complete performance of the season.
“It’s good to finally get that big win that we have been working for,” he said.
“We still had a patch in the third quarter and a patch in the fourth when we shut off a little bit, but they were only small patches.”
At the first break the side had already opened up a 44-point lead.
Ararat coach Terry Keilar said the Burras were much cleaner than his side with ball early.
“Slow starts have been a bit of a trait of ours this season,” he said.
“Even when we got the win against Dimboola they got the jump on us and the other two games were over by half time.
“We mainly let ourselves down with the final ball being delivered into our forward line.”
The Burras also had trouble starting well in the first two round. Cameron wanted to make sure his side continued playing hard after setting the standard early on Saturday.
“We’ve had a big emphasis over the last fortnight on playing a complete game,” he said.
“It was pretty easy to let the boys know that was just one quarter of footy gone and we need to reset and go on with it.”
While the Burras side could not keep up its frenetic scoring pace in the second quarter the Rats could only manage to add one goal.
By half-time the margin had ballooned to 70-points.
“We put it to the boys at half-time that we might be out of the game but it was a real chance to show some character,” Keilar said.
Although the young sides can often play on confidence Ararat responded to the challenge at hand and played more competitive football in the the third and fourth quarters.
It was some of the side’s youngest players who put their hands up. Tom Mills played strongly at centre-half-forward and Adam Heslett who kept the dangerous Jae McGrath to three goals.
Grady Slobcome was another who gave the side some drive through the middle of the ground.
“The young players really flew the flag well,” Keilar said.
It was not enough to stop Miniyip-Murtoa scoring as the margin to 93-points with a quarter to go before finishing at 104.
Cameron said the results came down to his side playing team football.
“When the ball hit the ground we worked in numbers,” he said.