ANOTHER round, another Golden Square win and another bag of goals to full-forward Grant Weeks.
The Golden Square juggernaut rolled on in the Bendigo Football League on Saturday, with the Bulldogs belting Kangaroo Flat by 141 points, 29.21 (195) to 7.12 (54), at Country Vet Oval.
The victory extended Golden Square’s winning streak to 20 games, stretching back to round 12, last year.
“The boys played selfless footy for the four quarters, which was a real theme of ours today,’’ Bulldogs coach Nick Carter said.
The win was highlighted by 11 goals from Weeks, who also took 17 marks.
With his 11 goals, Weeks now has 88 for the season — 23 more than Eaglehawk’s Frank Crapper had at the same stage in 1933 when he set the record for the most goals in a BFL season.
The Bulldogs never gave the Roos a chance to get into the contest.
It took Kangaroo Flat 14 minutes into the opening quarter to get the ball inside its 50 for the first time.
By then the Bulldogs had already been inside their 50 eight times for seven scoring shots, kicking 3.4.
Weeks and fellow forward Matt O’Toole, in his 100th game, were looking ominous in the first quarter.
The pair combined for seven marks between them in the first quarter.
Weeks, opposed by Jack Bowyer, kicked three goals in the first term, but O’Toole had his radar off, kicking three behinds.
The Bulldogs hit the contest with enormous intensity in the first term.
That intensity and work rate was best summed up by Adrian McErvale.
At the 19-minute mark McErvale had a set-shot at goal from 40m out.
However, he kicked into the man on the mark, Ryan Doherty.
But McErvale followed his mistake up by laying a tackle on Doherty, for which he was awarded a free-kick, and this time goaled from 30m out.
The Bulldogs led by 38 points at quarter-time, 7.4 to 1.2, with the Roos’ sole goal of the opening term kicked by Andrew Gladman with a snap at the 17-minute mark.
After kicking seven goals in the first quarter, the Bulldogs then slammed on eight in the second, with their quick, precise transition a standout as best-on-ground Mark Lloyd, Nathan Bell, Shaun Young, Matt Klein-Breteler, McErvale, Luke Hammond and Simon Rosa linked up brilliantly.
Up forward they constantly fed Weeks with pin-point passes that gave Bowyer little chance of spoiling.
By half-time Weeks had kicked six goals as the Bulldogs led by 62 points, 15.7 to 5.5.
Kangaroo Flat’s most productive period of the game came in time-on of the second quarter when it kicked consecutive goals in the space of two minutes through Justin Maddern and Doherty.
With the contest over at half-time, the main interest in the game after the break centred around how many goals Weeks would kick.He added five more after half-time to finish with 11.6.
The Bulldogs piled on 14.4 to 2.8 in the second half as they beat Kangaroo Flat for the 20th-straight time.
The Roos’ two goals in the second half both came in the last quarter through Liam Clohesy and Maddern, who finished with 3.4, which included a miss from 15m out in the third term. While it was a tough day for the Roos, they did have some joy early in the third quarter when Ryan McNish took a screamer over the top of Klein-Breteler.
Fittingly, after kicking five straight behinds, the final goal of the game was scored by O’Toole, who converted a 40m set-shot after the siren.
Along with Weeks’ 11, Hammond, half-forward Aaron Hawkins and wingman Adam Baird kicked three each for the Bulldogs, whose lead had grown to triple figures by the 21-minute mark of the third quarter.
The downside for the Bulldogs was a one or two-week ankle injury suffered by versatile big man James Bristow eight minutes into the first quarter.
Kangaroo Flat coach Murray Collins couldn’t fault the endeavour of his side, but said they were hurt by too many turnovers.
The Bulldogs kicked 18 of their goals directly from Kangaroo Flat turnovers.
“They were much bigger and stronger than us, and just a very good football side. The result was disappointing, but the boys tried as hard as they could,’’ Collins said.
Match statistics:
Centre clearances: Kangaroo Flat 21; Golden Square 18.
Inside 50s: Golden Square 65; Kangaroo Flat 33.
Stoppages: Golden Square 17; Kangaroo Flat 5.
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