LEITCHVILLE-Gunbower tightened its grip on its position in the Heathcote District league top five as it continued its stranglehold over Mount Pleasant on Saturday.

The Bombers beat the Blues for the 11th-straight time, prevailing in a hard-fought clash by six points at Toolleen.

The Bombers' 12.14 (86) to 12.8 (80) win was the only tight game to begin the second half of the season, with the other three round 10 matches all decided by 70 points-plus.

The grinding victory was the Bombers' third in a row and for the first time this season the reigning premiers have more wins than losses on the board, with their record at 5-4.

"We came with a gameplan today and I thought for most part we carried it out the way we wanted to," Bombers coach Danny Teskera said.

"We were a bit scrappy in patches, but in general the 22 played their roles well."

The Bombers trailed by 13 points at half-time, but by three quarter-time had edged in front by five points before both sides added three goals apiece in the final term.

The six-point margin was the third game this season the Bombers have been involved in decided by a kick for two wins (against the Blues and Heathcote) and one loss (against Elmore).

The Bombers' best was recruit Daniel Bibby, who joined the club this year from Navarre.

"He's an inside mid who was very good today... really clean with his hands and he's really starting to find his spot in the midfield group," Teskera said.

Fellow midfielder Matt Pollock (two goals) and Ayden Walton also led the best for the Bombers.

In a game decided by six points, the Blues were left frustrated at a contentious goal paid to the Bombers just before half-time.

"We knew it was going to be a really tough game, particularly given we've still got a lot of our backline out," Blues coach Darren Walsh said.

"But I thought our makeshift backline today did really well; it was more our midfield was hot and cold all day and in the end that was the major deciding factor.

"In the end we weren't tough enough for long enough."

The Blues' backline was missing the quartet of Dale Young, Joe Connelly, Nick Butler and Hugo Steinfort.

Luke Marchesi suffered concussion during the match, while Bryce Hinneberg hurt an ankle.

Tall forward Cody Green (four) and Ben Weightman (three) combined for seven of the Blues' 12 goals, with Weightman taking his season tally to 50.

Taig Griffin, Fraser Cole in his second game of the season and Nick Edwards were the best for the Blues.

Colbinabbin forward Daniel Connors booted six goals against Elmore, but has suffered yet another frustrating injury setback.

In just his third game of the season, Connors re-injured his hamstring in the third quarter of the Grasshoppers' 21.19 (145) to 9.8 (62) victory at home.

"There's a slight niggle there; we don't think it's too bad," Colbinabbin coach Julian Bull said.

"He had kicked 6.4 halfway through the third quarter, taken a couple of hangers and was looking unreal, so it's disappointing he had to come off when he did."

As well as Connors' bag of six, the Grasshoppers also had Matt Riordan, captain David Price and Michael Battista kick three goals each.

"Having Connors and Battista back in today meant we could have some real isolation with our forwards and get a lot of one-on-one contests," Bull said.

"Battista has been overseas, so for him to come back in and take a lot of marks and have a real impact was great and helped our mids like Pricey bob up and kick a few as well."

Among the standouts for the Grasshoppers was silky veteran Nick Knight, who had 32 possessions off half-back, consistent ruckman Hadleigh Sirett and midfielder Will Morrow.

The Grasshoppers' lead had been 23 points at half-time, before they added 14 goals to five after the main break in their 17^th straight win over Elmore - currently the league's longest streak of consecutive wins by one team over another.

Key forward Romain Grenville was the Bloods' only multiple goalkicker, slotting five of their nine.

"We had probably 10 minutes in both the first and second quarter where we dominated the contest, but weren't able to capitalise," Elmore coach Danny Brewster said.

"After half-time Colbo was able to get its running game going, used the ball a lot better than we did and also set up really well behind the ball."

Two of the Bloods' younger players in Ian Fuller and Bailey Boyack, who have both put together solid seasons, were Elmore's best.

"They have been two of our best all year; they always crack in, give a good contest and just want to keep improving," Brewster said.

The Bloods' Matt Gilmour suffered a rolled ankle.

Lockington-Bamawm United absorbed a strong defensive challenge from Heathcote in the first half before kicking away to a 70-point victory.

"Heathcote threw everything at us in that first half and brought a defensive gameplan to put numbers behind the footy," Cats coach Kahl Oliver said.

"They started with a loose man that worked well for them, and then pushed another couple back as well and clogged our forward line right up and we struggled to deal with that.

"I gave the boys a rev at half-time and in the second half when they had players behind the ball we put players to them and took it back to one-on-one contests.

"Luke Bell had been a big problem for us in the first half sitting in the hole for Heathcote, but Lachie Collins took it upon himself to go and play on him in the second half and take him out of the game.

"We were able to get things back on our terms in the second half."

The Cats led 4.7 to 4.6 at half-time before kicking 12 goals to one in the second half to win 16.13 (109) to 5.9 (39) at Heathcote.

Forward Patrick Gardiner (five) kicked five-plus goals for the third time this season to be the best for the Cats, while Bart Phillips off half-back and class midfielder Nathan Bacon were also among the top performers.

The Saints have now been outscored 179-37 after half-time following competitive first halves in both their past two matches against the Cats and Elmore.

Assistant coach Codie Price returned to the Saints side and in a familiar sight this year was again named their best, while Liam Edwards kicked two of Heathcote's five goals.

North Bendigo recorded an 83-point victory over Huntly to ensure it maintained its one game break at the top of the ladder.

The inaccurate Hawks could muster just two goals from their 13 scoring shots as the Bulldogs won 15.16 (106) to 2.11 (23) at Huntly.

Huntly's meagre tally of 23 was the competition's lowest of the season.

"We weren't really focused on what the scoreboard showed today; it was more honing in on our structures," Bulldogs coach Matt Dillon said.

"We knew Huntly would try to bottle it up and they put a couple behind the footy in our forward line, which is becoming the norm and we wanted to work on combating that, which we did fairly well.

"It was a scrappy game at times, but we won every quarter and generally played the way we wanted to."

Midfielder/forward Zach Alford (two goals), Darcy Richards (three goals) and the in-form Joel Helman all played fine games for the Bulldogs.

North Bendigo forward Brady Herdman with four goals outscored Huntly off his own boot.

The Hawks were kept goal-less in both the second and third quarters by a North Bendigo side that for the third game in a row held its opponent to less than 50 points.

Huntly's two goals were kicked by Jacob Greenwood and Alex Daniels.

Among the better players for the Hawks were Mac Whittle and Lachlan Mangan, who had both been cleared from Bridgewater during the week.

Jaydon Cowling and Harry Whittle were named best for the young Hawks, who were held to their lowest score since 2011.

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