Stawell Westlift Warriors have been smashed by a struggling Dimboola in the Wimmera Football League.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dimboola, who hadn't recorded a win prior to playing Stawell, played themselves into some form.
The team progressively got better and Stawell had very few answers.
In the opening quarter Stawell started well, with Chris Ford a good option going forward.
Ford has been playing down back until recent weeks and the move forward has been a good one, the recruit finding some form and kicking four goals on Saturday.
Warriors were just 15 points down at quarter time and would have taken a number of positives from the opening term.
From there Warriors fell away and the Roos took their game to another level.
Coach Brad Cassidy was again disappointed with the result.
"The final margin was big and we are disappointed," Cassidy said.
"There were some positives for us. Our first quarter was really good.
"We got a lot of contested ball and we scored from their turnovers."
By half time Warriors were 38 points down and had a mountain of work to do to get themselves back in the contest.
Warriors kicked a couple of early second half goals thanks to some handy ground level work from Mitch Olafsen that was finished off by brothers Jesse and Tom Eckel.
Both the Eckel boys along with Cam Kimber and a couple of the new recruits continued to fight out the game until the final siren, as did hard working defender Scott Rathgeber.
Rathgeber had the tough match up on key forward Lachlan Excell.
He did a good job containing Excell to just four goals, but the Dimboola spearhead was well supported by Ash Clugston and Lachlan Watts who each kicked five goals.
Dimboola extended their lead in the second half to win by 99 points.
"There are some days where the opposition are just better than you," Cassisy said.
"I think that was the case against Dimboola.
"They made very few mistakes in the second half and ran hard."
Stawell managed to kick three goals in the final quarter which was pleasing for the coach.
"The boys continued to fight. We wanted a five goal finish and kicked three," Cassidy said.
Best players for Stawell were Tom and Jesse Eckel, Chris Ford, Cameron Kimber, Jackson Dark and Scott Rathgeber.
The final score was Stawell 10.6.68 defeated by Dimboola 25.17.167.