Firing on all cylinders: Bulldogs into top-five as forwards find groove

The Bulldogs honoured club stalwart Daniel Meade's 350-game milestone in style on Saturday, with the Warrnambool and District league outfit piling on 24.12 (156) to 15.7 (97) against a plucky South Rovers.

The win sees the Bulldogs climb into the top-five after results went their way on the day.

Veterans Chris Bant (six goals) and Sam Mahony (six) combined for a dozen majors in a forward masterclass, with the pair getting on the end of some deep entries across the four quarters helped by a midfield who moved the footy with fluency.

Courtney told The Standard he was thrilled with how side was playing at the moment.

"They (South Rovers) had some nice patches throughout the game, but I felt like we were able to control the majority of the game," he said.

"We are kicking high scores which is good to see. If you look at our games this year they've been quite high-scoring. Games are swinging a lot with us, so we've been able to kick high scores.

"We've got some really nice targets down there in the forward line. (Chris) Bant is down there, (Lachlan) McLeod is good down forward, (Sam) Melican has been good, Sam Mahony kicked six today and swung up forward.

"We're doing a lot of work on our leading patterns and creating space for our teammates. Six blokes are down there but they're all working towards one result, it doesn't matter who kicks them."

"We're playing some really good footy at the moment, so it was nice to cap off a really solid margin victory for us."

The first-year Bulldogs mentor said it was important to keep chalking up wins and believed his side was up for the challenge against Allansford.

He added the group came away from the clash without any fresh injuries.

"Those sides in the middle there, Kolora, Dennington, it's very close. Kolora beat us, we beat Dennington," he said.

"We've got a huge game against Allansford now, if we can continue playing the footy we're playing, we'll be close.

"It's a massive game for us against Allansford next week, we can't wait. We should regain some really good players hopefully next week too. We've had six or seven out every week."

The Lions showed some excellent signs, particularly when they found some space, with Josh Bell kicking another bag of five, while Dylan Cox and skipper Sam Wilde were solid.