The Bendigo Pioneers continued their strong pre-season form against the Murray Bushrangers on Saturday.
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The Pioneers played three trial games against their country rival at Punt Rd and came away with two wins and one draw.
The under-16 squad scored a strong seven-goal win, the under-17s were victorious by three goals, while the under-18s played out a thrilling draw.
“The Pioneers and Bushrangers are both in Richmond’s region for the Next Generation Academy, so we had a gala day at Punt Rd,’’ Pioneers head coach Rick Coburn said.
“The under-16s had a very strong win, the under-17s played well and the under-18 game was a draw, which was an exciting finish.
“In the under-18s, both teams had players out, so it was a good chance for us to test some of our players out.
“It was a very entertaining game. We finished strongly to tie the scores… we had a shot for goal late in the game that was going through for a goal, but it was touched on the line by Murray and the scores were tied.
“It was good for the boys to have a practice game that was so tight.”
The strong performances came one week after the Pioneers impressed against Greater Western Rebels in trial games.
“The standard this week probably wasn’t quite as good as the previous week,’’ Coburn admitted.
“To be fair, Murray had players away at NSW academy trials and we had some of our players unavailable because of school commitments and we rested a few boys.
“We really used the day as a selection trial for some of the boys that are trying to make our final squad. In that regard, I was really happy with the performances by our boys and it shows we have good depth.”
The only negative for the Pioneers was a shoulder injury to Will Holt in the under-17 match.
