Gold won their first game back after Christmas break on Saturday, defeating Mortlake 70-43 to take their record to 7-3.

"The beauty of winning flags is you get to go and represent your region at state pennant," Bowles said. "And that's the ultimate at the end of the day.

"The last time we won the flag was when COVID hit so we didn't get a chance to go away and do that. So that's my motivation, to get to that level but first of all you've got to win the flag."

Bowles, who has played division one for 15 years, said it was important the team furthered its winning record leading into finals as they aim to stay above the pack in second place.

The financial adviser said the standard of play this season was stronger than previous years, which is reflected in a ladder where only two games separate third and 10th.

"We dropped a couple games before Christmas so now the pressure is on," Bowles said. "We've got to knuckle down and win all games from now on basically to really secure our spot in the finals."

Playing third to skip Paul O'Donnell, Bowles' rink was joined by Brian McMahon (lead) and Neville Mahney (second) this round, with both crossing from fellow division one team Warrnambool Blue. Bowles said their six-shot rink win was "a good, solid win with room for improvement" while consistency will be key in the team's pursuit of a flag.

"If we play our best we'll be good enough," he said. "We just need to get a bit more consistency across all rinks. If we can do that we'll give it a pretty good shake."

In other results, Port Fairy defeated Dunkeld 75-45 while Dennington edged out Koroit by five shots. Warrnambool Blue overcame Lawn Red 59-48, City Red remained undefeated with an eight-shot win over City Gold while Timboon held off Terang 61-54.

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