Mt Pleasant defeated North Bendigo for the first time since 2008 to give coach Darren Walsh his best win at the club.
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The Blues had lost their previous 20 encounters with the HDFNL power by an average margin of 10 goals,
Their last five matches had resulted in North Bendigo posting cricket scores in wins of 126, 165, 180, 137 and 108 points.
It was a different story on Saturday as Mounts basically led from start to finish to win 14.11 (95) to 11.15 (81).
"We're playing with substance now whereas last year we were going into games hoping we'd match it with good teams,'' Walsh said.
"Now we have confidence in what we're doing. I know North Bendigo had Brady Herdman out, but we were missing Dale Young and Cam Moore down back.
"It was a big win for the club...it's an eight point game when you can beat one of the top three sides."
The Bulldogs led by 26 points at the final change, but had to withstand a late rally from the Bulldogs, who got within two goals of the home side at one stage.
"North have been such a good side for so long that I knew they would come at us because good teams hate to lose,'' Walsh said.
"They outplayed us in the last quarter, so we'll take some learnings out of that.
"We've improved, but how much we've improved we won't know until probably the halfway mark of the season."
Ben Weightman is in a rich vein of form form for the Blues.
The midfielder/forward kicked five goals to be his side's best player.
Joseph Whiting, Mitch Bennett and Joe Connelly also performed strongly for Mounts.
The Bulldogs' injury curse continued, with Jordan Ford (groin), Joel Helman (shoulder) and Brodie Thomson (hamstring) injured in the first 20 minutes before Billy Robertson (groin) got hurt early in the third term.
Ford stayed on the ground as a deep forward, but struggled to move.
"We didn't have a bench from early in the third quarter onwards, so to come back in the last quarter was pleasing,'' North Bendigo coach Matt Dillon said.
"The disappointing thing was that, with a few players out, we needed some players to stand up and they did it in the last quarter when the game was done, but not early in the game."
The Bulldogs have the next two weeks off through a general bye and inter-league bye.
"The two-week break couldn't come at a better time for us,'' Dillon said.
Lockington-Bamawm United is the only undefeated team after four rounds of the HDFNL season.
The Cats had their toughest encounter of the season so far, grinding out a 16-point win over reigning premier Leitchville-Gunbower.
In a low-scoring slog in windy conditions, the Cats prevailed 8.9 (57) to 6.5 (41) to deny Leitchville-Gunbower victory on the day they celebrated 100 years of football in the community.
"We were really pleased to get the four points against a good team that was playing on their home ground and celebrating a big anniversary,'' Cats' coach Kahl Oliver said.
"It was a tough, physical game of footy. We were without Nathan Bacon and Liam Main, who are probably in our best five players, so to get the win without them was very pleasing."
Midfielder Zeke Johnston collected close to 40 possessions to be the Cats' best player, while Jeremy Mundie swept up everything across half-back.
Defenders Marcus Angove and Rhys Woodland were also solid, while Tom Leech kicked four goals.
Despite the absence of key midfielder Logan Prout, the Bombers gave their all in front of a big home crowd, but just came up short.
Jack Lunghusen, Brady Hore and Aydne Walton were the standouts for the home side and Tyler Jones kicked four of the Bomers' six goals
Huntly celebrated its first win of the season when it overran Heathcote at Strauch Reserve.
The Hawks trailed by 15 points at half-time, before kicking seven goals to four after the break to win 10.14 (74) to 9.12 (66).
"We stuck to our plan and structures in the second half and we executed a lot better,'' Huntly coahc Denis Grinton said.
"In the first half we went away from the way we to play and, to Heathcote's credit, they took advantage and gave themselves a chance to win the game.
"I asked the boys at half-time to dig in and they responded well."
Heathcote had a sniff of victory when they closed within two points late in the game.
However, a goal to Huntly's Alex Daniels with two minutes remaining quashed the Saints' hopes.
"I thought we've played some good footy in patches over the first three weeks, but turnovers and poor decision making cost us,'' Grinton said.
"We didn't do that in the second half today and we got the rewards.
"Heathcote kept coming at us in the last quarter and we showed that we had learned from the Elmore game a couple of weeks. We lost against Elmore, but this time we set up well and got over the line."
One of the highlights of the day for Huntly was 16-year-old Bryce Laird kicking a goal on debut.
For the third time in as many games Codie Price was named best for Heathcote. The former Sandhurst star kicked three goals.
White Hills finally have something to smile about.
The embattled Demons broke through for their first win under new coach Sam Kerridge, defeating the undermanned Elmore 22.12 (144) to 6.13 (49).
Mitch Dole wound back the clock to when he was in his prime with Sandhurst in the BFNL.
Dole was electric inside forward 50, kicking eight goals.
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