Russells Creek coach Peter Timms says he was pleased with his side's start against Dennington but then the "curse of the lapse was back again".
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Creek did enough in the first half to claim a 16.11 (107) to 9.12 (66) round eight Warrnambool and District league win over the Dogs at Dennington Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
Russells Creek stormed out of the gates in the opening quarter, outscoring the Dogs six goals to one.
Timms said his team found itself in unfamiliar territory.
"We're not used to being in front by a large amount," he said.
Dennington evened up the contest in the second half, with both teams slotting five goals each.
The Creek mentor said his side would learn from the encounter.
"I thought we could have been a bit cleaner at the stoppages," he said.
"We just weren't getting it to that outside runner."
He said he wanted his team to be better with its exits from stoppages.
But he said his side was executing some of the things practiced at training in recent weeks.
Creek has been working on its tackling and at "training under fatigue".
"I thought our tackling pressure was a lot better today," he said.
"We don't want to slip tackles, we want to make sure they stick."
"Our skills under fatigue are definitely better."
Timms said he was impressed by youngster Pedro Sharp, who played his second senior match as the junior substitute.
"I was pretty happy with his performance," he said.
Dennington coach Mick Phillips said slow starts had haunted his team in its past two matches.
Allansford kicked five goals to the Dogs two, in the first quarter of their round seven clash.
"We had a lot of football but turnovers are hurting us," he said of the Creek match.
Phillips said 10 of Russells Creeks' goals came from Dennington's turnovers.
Dogs boom recruit Ben Thornton, who played his fourth match for the season, was his team's best player.
Phillips said he gave Thornton a big task for the match.
"We gave him a challenge today to go head-to-head with Andy McMeel," he said.
"They had a pretty good battle."
Russells Creek plays South Rovers in round nine, while Dennington meets Panmure.
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