The Rats have won every match since their round five bye but Minyip-Murtoa defeated them 73 points to 38 on Saturday.

The Wimmera League match was played in Murtoa and from the start the Burras applied consistent pressure and didn't let the Rats take anything for granted.

"We know today we were coming up against a yardstick in the competition," Ararat senior coach Shane Fisher said.

"We lost a couple of players from last week but we brought a couple in and thought we'd compete really hard, and I thought we did, but we didn't put pressure on the scoreboard like we should have in the first half.

"Credit to Minyip - they play a really good zoning off type game where they put pressure on your half forward half back line and it took us a while to try to come to terms with that."

While Minyip-Murtoa moved as a cohesive unit, Fisher said the Rats were a little bit "sloppy."

"Skill-wise we turned the footy over at times where we probably haven't for the first seven or eight weeks," he said. "But we drive away a big learning curve.

"We're a side who is still trying to improve week in week out - we're not the yardstick of the competition but we think we're improving.

"We didn't mope about the rooms. We straight away got on the whiteboards and did some things about what we can learn today."

Minyip-Murtoa coach John Delahunty said it was an "across the board team effort" from his side.

"Everyone seemed like they were really switched on today," he said.

"I just asked for each quarter to really focus hard and reset at each break and the boys seemed to do that.

"We're trying to play as strong a team footy as we can and today was some of the best we've had all year. It was a really solid four quarters."

Delahunty said the side had to fight pretty hard against increased pressure in the second half of the game.

"After half time at the start of the third quarter Ararat came out with their full effort and we had to really work hard to wrestle it back on our terms," Delahunty said.

Fisher said Ararat will get "back on the horse next week" against Warrack.

"We're at the half-way mark with six and two and I think any team in the competition would take that - we'll certainly take it," he said.

"It was a good battle. They've got some really good key forwards and a couple of their recruits are very good footballers. We'll keep learning and look forward to playing them at home next time."

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