Gisborne finally got some reward for effort, claiming its second win of the Bendigo Football League season.
It’s been a while between drinks for the Bulldogs, not having won since the opening round.
But on Saturday they were able to play well for a longer period and go on to win 18.19 (127)-6.6 (42) against Maryborough.
Bulldogs’ coach Clinton Young said while they were slow out of the blocks, it was a good even team performance.
“Judging on other results, they [Maryborough] have a young team and I thought, from my point of view, that we wanted to play our best football.
“We’ve been in games the last month, but we haven’t been able to get the results.
“We played really well in the middle part of the game, though we were slow at the start and end.
“We’ve got a game plan and we do it well for the majority of the game, but we need to do it for four quarters.
“Hopefully we will gain some momentum.”
Matt Goodyear was the standout for the Bulldogs. Young said Goodyear, who played AFL for Collingwood before playing VFL the past few seasons, had decided to play local football only for the rest of the season.
“He made the decision a couple of weeks ago and he adds to our group,” Young said.
“He’s well experienced and brought something to our team. He’s really enjoying being back and hopefully he will stamp himself as one of the best midfielders in the competition.”
Young said Riley Paterson was the other standout. Sam Ramsay kicked four goals in his first game of the season.
Young, who was also back for his first game of the season, said he was happy to get through the game.
“It was good to be back out there, it’s been almost 12 months since I last played,” he said.
The win leaves the Bulldogs sitting seventh on the ladder with a 2-4 record ahead of three matches before the mid-season break.
Young said they wanted to continue to build. “We’ve still got guys out and we are starting to build that depth,” he said.
“We’ve got Castlemaine, who we had a tough battle with last year and then Golden Square. They are one of the benchmarks of the competition and we want to make an impression against the top sides.
“Then we have South Bendigo.
“We’re keen to really make our way up the ladder.”
Kyneton had a good win against Sandhurst, winning 14.9 (93)-8.14 (62). The win moves the Tigers to third on the ladder.
