GOLDEN Square coach Bernie Haberman labelled Strathfieldsaye’s performance on Saturday the best he has witnessed by an opposition during his stint at the Bulldogs.
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The Bulldogs were dismantled by the Storm, who in an ominous performance by the reigning premiers thrashed Golden Square by 66 points to grab top spot on the BFNL ladder.
The Storm’s impressive 20.14 (134) to 10.8 (68) victory at Wade Street featured the highest score kicked against Golden Square since early in the 2009 season.
“They were the best team I’ve played against in the year-and-a-bit that I’ve been at Golden Square,’’ said Haberman, who has coached the Bulldogs in 28 games.
“I thought today was all about what they were able to do rather than what we couldn’t do… they were fantastic and if it wasn’t against us then it would have been a pleasure to watch.
“I think they probably made us look worse than we were, and maybe we made them look better at times than they were, but as a whole they were fantastic and I don’t want to take anything away from them.”
The Storm played a superb brand of well-drilled team footy, combining polished ball movement with four quarters of tackling intensity and clearance dominance in their sixth win in a row.
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Storm coach Troy Coates couldn’t have been more proud of the performance of his side, which faced an early challenge when it conceded the first three goals of the game in the opening seven minutes.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the boys today… everything we’ve been working on since the pre-season is starting to show in our games,” Coates said.
“It took a little while to click at the start of the year with some different structures and gameplan, but it’s coming together and we really saw that today.
“At times we’ve been questioned for our contested work, but today the biggest thing that stood out was our tackling, pressure and work at the stoppages and I thought we defended really well and created a lot of turnovers in our forward half with our press.”
Further souring Golden Square’s disappointing showing was defender Nathan Holt being stretchered off midway through the first quarter with a knee injury, while fellow backman Michael Dalrymple hurt an ankle in an added blow.