GOLDEN Square ensured its hoodoo streak over Kangaroo Flat would extend into a 15th season with an all-the-way 70-point win over the Roos on Saturday.
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At Bendigo Mazda Oval the Bulldogs did not allow the Flat a goal until the 11-minute mark of the second term on their way to a 30th straight victory over the Roos.
With playmaker Corey Jones drilling seven goals and flankers Tom Toma and Sam Harper adding three each, the Dogs were in complete control of the midfield spread.
The Roos did double their last change total with a four-goal final quarter before the Square cantered home to a 17.19 (121) to 7.9 (51) victory.
The writing was on the wall – and on the scoreboard – for the Roos by quarter-time.
The Square had registered eight scoring shots to two and led by 16 points as Jones and Toma nailed goals at the Station Street end.
Even when James Saville capitalized on an Ash Benbow handball to land the Roos’ opening goal, the Bulldogs responded with majors to Steve Kairn and Harper as half-time approached.
Tim Brooks did manage to land two Kangaroo Flat goals with accurate set shots, but three majors for a half of football was poor return for the Kangaroos.
Six third term goals to a solitary Flat behind steamrolled Square to an imposing 63-point lead by three-quarter time.
Jones and Harper speared home two goals each in the third stanza as regular full-back Dale Young added his name to an expanding Bulldogs’ scoring list.
Young made an extra man across the centre and drilled a rare, personal major with a long shot.
The Roos looked a lot better in the final term. The Flat midfielders eventually managed to grab possessions across the middle of the ground rather than in the back half.
Sam Kennedy drilled two goals from set shots, the first from the timekeepers’ box flank, while Mitch Holt took full toll of a 50m penalty to pop through a major from point blank range.
Corey Jones, after an early major from the scoreboard pocket, then stepped up again. He drove home his sixth and seventh goals of the day for the Bulldogs as time ran out.
Square coach Nick Carter said he and his team had worked on midfield structures a fair bit over recent weeks.
“The last two or three weeks we’ve done a lot of work on our midfield structures, especially around stoppages,’’ Carter said.
“We’d felt we hadn’t quite got them right but during the last couple of weeks we’ve definitely seen some real improvement and today was an example of that.”