GOLDEN Square kicked half of its 14 goals in the final quarter on Saturday to finish 58-point victors against South Bendigo at the Queen Elizabeth Oval.
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In a game where inaccuracy plagued both sides – they combined to kick 20.30 – the Bulldogs won 14.20 (104) to 6.10 (46) to improve to 11-2 in the BFNL.
“We didn’t kick straight today, but neither did South at times,” Golden Square coach Nick Carter said.
“Overall, I thought the pressure the guys put on for the majority of the game was really strong. We lost our focus for a while in the third quarter, but we were able to get the job done.”
The Bulldogs had 7.17 on the board at three quarter-time to lead by 33 points, before they added 7.3 in the final term, with Dylan Johnstone getting off the leash.
Johnstone kicked four of his six goals in the final term to take his season tally to 52.
The strong finish to the game came after a challenge from Carter for the Bulldogs to up the ante and not be comfortable.
“We start games really well and get into a good position, but rather than striving to just replicate what we’ve been doing, we really need to up the ante,” Carter said.
“We’ve got to put the foot down and continue to attack and that’s what’s got to come over the next couple of weeks. We can’t just rely on our structures, we’ve got to play instinctive footy and continue to be aggressive with our running and we saw some of that in the last quarter, which was positive.”
Co-captains Jack Geary through the midfield and Brayden Dorrington off half-back were the two best for the Bulldogs, who were at their most inaccurate in the second term when they kicked a wasteful 2.8.
Veteran Simon Rosa, Jake Thrum, mid-season recruit Michael Roberts and Tom Toma (three goals) were also among the better players.
Like the Bulldogs, the Bloods kicked half of their goals in the last quarter when they slotted three of their six.
“It was a disappointing last quarter for us… we held them to seven goals for the first three quarters and let them kick seven in the last,” Bloods coach Brady Childs said.
“Square kicked inaccurately, but a lot of that was due to our pressure.
“We showed we could match it at times with our defensive work and some of our attacking play, but we’re just lacking that key forward.”
Leroy Miller was the Bloods’ only multiple goalkicker with two.
South Bendigo named Liam Bartels, who had the job of playing on Rosa, and small defender Nick Howe its two best players, while backman Daniel Nalder, Blair Whelan and ruckman Kieran Strachan also played well.