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READ MORE - Saturday Scoreboard
WHITE Hills' red-hot start to the Heathcote District league season continued on as the Demons beat long-time nemesis Colbinabbin for the first time in a decade.
After keeping the Grasshoppers goal-less in the first quarter, the Demons led at every change on the way to Saturday's 12.13 (85) to 7.11 (53) victory at Colbinabbin.
It was White Hills' first win over the Grasshoppers since 2011 and maintains their unblemished start to the season.
At 5-0 it's the best start to a season for the Demons since the year they last made the grand final in 2005.
"It was mentioned during the week that it had been a long time since we beat Colbinabbin and the boys put a really good four-quarter performance together," White Hills coach Sam Kerridge said.
The Demons led by 14 points at three quarter-time before continuing their trend of strong final terms, kicking four goals to one to push their winning margin out to 32 points.
In their five games so far the Demons have now outscored their opposition 215-27 in last quarters, with a strong pre-season campaign paying early dividends.
"That has been a real strength of ours over the past few weeks. The boys had a lot of confidence going into the last quarter that if we stuck to the way we'd been going we could break the game open," Kerridge said.
"We had a lot of good players again today. Lachie Sidebottom (ruck) was really good, Patty Eefting played another good game in the midfield and it was probably the best game Lachie Collihole (two goals) has played for the year at centre half-forward."
Star forward Jed Lamb, opposed by Matt Riordan, kicked four goals for the Demons and Mitch Dole slotted three.
The Grasshoppers, who narrowly won the second and third quarters, were best served by midfielder Ben Southam, who had a mammoth 46 touches, veteran Nick Knight and ruckman Lochlan Sirett, while Jed Brain kicked three of their seven goals.
"We had plenty of the ball and opportunities, but White Hills just executed a lot better than us," Colbinabbin coach Julian Bull said.
Tom Hill (concussion), Sam Vale (knee) and Riordan (ankle) are concerns for Colbinabbin out of the game.
ELMORE v HUNTLY
Elmore has its first win of the season after holding off a fast-finishing Huntly to beat the Hawks by the barest of margins.
The Bloods prevailed 11.13 (79) to 11.12 (78) at home, giving a relieved Dylan Friedberger his first victory as coach of the club.
The Hawks threatened to snatch the game late when they kicked the last four goals of the match and drove the ball into their forward 50 in the dying stages, before the Bloods' Dylan Oaff was able to take an intercept mark to thwart Huntly's last roll of the dice.
"We've now used 35 players already for the season in the seniors through injuries, so it has been tough in that regard," said Friedberger, who himself is on the Bloods' long injury list.
"This week I spoke about there not being a divide between the seniors and reserves, it's all about picking 22 footballers every week that I think can win the game and today just cements that mindset."
The move to push Ben Makepeace from defence to attack reaped a five-goal return for the Bloods, while skipper James Harney bagged three goals.
"Zack Holmberg was oustanding for us today with his defensive work and we gave him the job on Ryan Semmel from the second quarter," Friedberger said.
"Mitch Cricelli at centre half-forward was sensational... he played a man's game and James Harney continued his really good form."
The Bloods lost ruckman James Atkinson (quad) in the second quarter and Aaron Cuthbert to concussion in the first term.
Huntly coach Stacy Fiske was bitterly disappointed his side was unable to back up from the Hawks' win over Mount Pleasant the previous week.
"We're a bit of Jekkyl and Hyde at the moment. We showed last week when we play as a team the kind of footy we're capable of, but unfortunately today, we weren't up to it," Fiske said.
"We got outworked by Elmore and they wanted it more than we did.
"What I did like about today was young Mitch Billings. He's an under-18s player who is showing a bit in the seniors and is going to be a really good player moving forward for us."
HEATHCOTE v NORTH BENDIGO
North Bendigo soaked up a challenge from Heathcote to win by 11 points.
The reigning premier Bulldogs won 13.12 (90) to 11.13 (79) at Heathcote.
"I thought we had the game well in control at half-time (22 points up), but we tried to do a bit too much in the third quarter and probably got a bit ahead of ourselves," North Bendigo coach Matt Dillon said.
"It turned into a bit of a scrap after half-time and we made it really hard on ourselves. But with a few players out all we wanted to do was go there and get the win, which we did."
The Bulldogs' best player was forward Dylan Klemm.
"Klemmy was our best by a mile. He took some really nice grabs and his work up the ground resulted in a lot of our goals," Dillon said.
Midfielder Koe Ngawati won plenty of clearances, particularly in the first half, while Shane Harris kicked three goals.
White beaten, the 11-point deficit was a huge improvement for the Saints given the average losing margin in their previous 13 games against the Bulldogs had been 125 points.
MOUNT PLEASANT v LEITCHVILLE-GUNBOWER
Mount Pleasant notched its first win over Leitchville-Gunbower since 2014.
The Blues prevailed 16.18 (114) to 13.6 (84) at Toolleen to square their ledger at 2-2, with the victory featuring six goals to Ben Weightman and big games also from Bryce Hinneberg (four goals), Liam Collins and Billy Mahony.
While it was a fifth loss in a row for the Bombers, their tally of 84 was their highest score of the season so far.
"Our work-rate was fantastic and communication was a lot better today and it's probably our most consistent effort over four quarters so far... it would be just good for the boys to get some reward for the work they are putting in," Bombers coach Cameron Van Florestein said.
Ruckman Lee Pollock was named the Bombers' best.
CLUB-BY-CLUB SEASON TRACKER AFTER FIVE ROUNDS:
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