Panmure coach Chris Bant was delighted with the "selfless" nature of his side's Warrnambool and District league win over Merrivale.
The third-placed Bulldogs were too strong for the fourth-placed Tigers, triumphing 14.9 (93) to 7.8 (50) at Merrivale Recreation Reserve.
Speaking to The Standard after the match, Bant said he was struggling to pick his best players.
"I reckon there's 10 to 15 blokes who could be in it," he said.
"No one was outstanding but everyone did their job to the best of their ability. When we do that, we're hard to beat.
"The penny's dropped a bit. They're listening, they're a really good group to coach."
At three-quarter-time the Tigers trailed the Bulldogs by 22-points and still had faint hopes of a victory.
That was put to bed quickly in the final term, with the Bulldogs overrunning their opponents and piling on three unanswered goals.
Bant admitted his side hadn't been playing that well before the match.
"We won last week but I don't think we played that well and we knew today that we'd have to play four good quarters to beat Merrivale," he said.
"They're always hard to beat. I'm pretty happy to be honest."
Bant kicked a game-high three goals for the Bulldogs while Jacob Moloney was dominant for the victors.
It wasn't all good news for Panmure however, with Tate Gardiner injuring a hamstring.
"I don't think it's real bad. It'll probably be a game or two," Bant said.
Clay Cassidy took over Merrivale coaching duties for Jacob Sobey, who was unavailable due to illness.
Cassidy said his side was hurt by their skill errors.
"We like to kick short, we like to handball but when your missing targets it really disrupts you and it's hard to move the ball when it's always continually down at your feet," he said.
"It's always good playing against the good sides. If you want to be considered a good side you've got to play well against them.
"I think we definitely learned a bit about ourselves today and hopefully we can improve going forward."
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Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
