Dennington notches emotional win in the Warrnambool District league, breaks drought of three years

Times have been tough for the Warrnambool and District league outfit, testing the resolve of the club through many years of pain on-field.

It's why Saturday's win - an impressive 72-point victory against Timboon Demons, 14.15 (99) to 3.9 (27) - means the world to the Dogs and their adoring supporters who turned out in droves to witness the side sing the song again.

Entering the weekend, Ben Thornton's group had lost 31 of their past 32 matches, with the last win coming against East Warrnambool in round 17, 2019.

But those around the club, and outside of it have been seeing a shift in the Dogs. It's obvious that the playing group under the second-year coach has turned the corner in more ways than one.

Not just in competitiveness, but it's attitude.

"It's massive for me personally and for the club as a whole," Thornton told The Standard of the emotion surrounding the win.

"It's been a real long slog to get to here, you can see it around the rooms just how many people came in - it means a lot to me but it means more to Dennington as a whole. It's just great to see."

Playing with spark and energy, the Dogs cut the Demons to ribbons through fast ball movement, and a willingness to use the corridor to open up the game.

After a scrappy opening term, the home team played some entertaining footy and pulled away to an impressive win, with the crowd riding every bump, mark, tackle and goal.

"We do have a genuine style we want to play and it came down to genuine belief to be able to do it," Thornton said.

"Last year we had so many changes and this year we did too so to pull it all together was great. We're backing each other in.

"It'll help us go out that extra step forward now I guess."

The proud Dogs mentor said the win was only going to make his group hungrier for more.

"It's massive for us - it's been so long but blokes know they can, we've got the players to do it," he said.

"Now we've shown we can do it, it's about putting in each week and sticking to it."

Experienced forward Josh Stapleton was simply superb for the Dogs with a bag of five and had a great sense of when to stamp his authority, Sam Curtis was excellent while Jack Noonan, Thornton himself and Jordan Garner each contributed strongly.

But on a a golden day for the Dogs, 300-gamer Michael Phillips was the only negative to come out of the clash, with a serious achilles injury in the third term dampening his milestone game.

Thornton said it spurred his side to run out the last quarter strongly.

"We touched on it before we went out in the last quarter, it's probably been the story of his last 100 games, injury," he said.

"It was a slog to get to 300 and to see him going down is disappointing - he was the last bloke to win a game here and I took over."

The Dogs also celebrated new life member Sean Fogarty's 150^th match at the club, acknowledging his major impact on the playing group after the game.

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