Merrivale is starting to reap the rewards of its focus on defence at training, according to coach Josh Sobey.
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The Tigers bounced back from their round five loss to beat Russells Creek 16.14 (110) to 6.9 (45) at Mack Oval on Saturday.
It was a tight game until the Tigers roared away with three goals late in the third term.
They kicked six goals to zip in the final quarter.
"Defence is going to win us games of footy and we kept them to 45 points today so that was a big target," Sobey said.
"We knew the offence was going to come and open up as the game went on."
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The offence largely came through Nathan Krepp and Jack Neave who kicked six and four goals respectively.
"He did play well and he's working really hard," Sobey said of Krepp.
"When we get our ball movement right up the ground and get our decision-making on target and we're on the same page, then we see the rewards for those guys.
"And Jack Neave was really good and Burner (Luke Byrne) was starting to get some uncontested marks late.
"It's there, it's coming, we're working really hard on it but we spend a lot of time on defence which I think got us the win today."
Sobey said his group worked on defence through pre-season.
"It's certainly been an area we've struggled in, we've let teams kick big scores on us in the past," he said.
The Tigers' defenders stepped up without their injured captain Jack Gleeson who plays in the back line.
"(Full-back) Sean Barnes probably doesn't get credit, he's a hard lockdown player and great leader and sort of captained the boys today with both (vice-captain) Claye (Cassidy) and Jack out," Sobey said.
Meanwhile, the Tigers' injury woes continued with Wil Flaherty (ankle) and Barnes (calf).
"We're losing two or three (players) on average per week at the minute and that's just out of our senior group," Sobey said.
Listen to Allansford coach Ben Price on this week's Main Break podcast:
Russells Creek mentor Peter Timms was impressed with his side's attack on the footy in the first half.
"I just thought our work rate dropped, we didn't spread when they spread from the contest," he said of the second half.
Timms felt the Creekers weren't accountable enough.
"When they were spreading we just weren't paying them enough respect," he said.
While the coach said there were no injuries from the match, he said he had sore players.
"And it showed in that last quarter, we were just running on empty," he said.
"We might have a lighter week and try and freshen a few up."
In a positive, Timms is expecting the likes of Sam Wilson (calf soreness) and Caleb Templeton (hamstring strain) to be back in round seven.
The coach was also pleased with the efforts of the three under 18s players he had in Saturday's team.
Both sides face good tests in round seven with the Tigers taking on Allansford at home while Russells Creek will travel to take on Panmure.
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