Kelly Gowland’s side overcame strong nerves to produce a commanding 22-goal thumping of South Rovers on Sunday.

Gowland, a long-serving player, said a fast start removed any doubts in her players’ minds.

The Demons blazed away, but determination from South Rovers meant the margin was just three goals at quarter time.

“We were quite nervous coming into this – myself and Hayley (Plozza) were particularly – and it can go either way with nerves like that,” she said.

“You can either lose the plot when you’re so nervous, or you can gain some momentum from it.

“Things went well in the first quarter, and that’s important for us. Whenever we have a really good first quarter, we’re usually off. 

“It’s really hard for us to come back from a bad first quarter. So it was really important to have a strong start to get us up and running.”

Gowland noted big margins throughout the lower grades, urging her side to keep their head up if they were to fall behind.

“You did notice that as soon as other teams dropped their heads, the margins stretched further,” she said.

“I said to the girls before the match, that even though I didn’t think we’d fall behind, we have to make sure we don’t drop our heads.

“We didn’t get it that position but I was hoping we’d be able to turn it around.”

South Rovers was unable to be reached for comment.

Timboon is set to meet Kolora-Noorat in a do-or-die semi final on Saturday.