Kangaroo Flat's breakthrough win over Maryborough on Saturday wasn't just about collecting the four points.
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It was the style of footy the young Roos played that showed coach James Flaherty his teachings are sinking in.
Much of Flaherty's initial coaching with the Roos was about teaching the youngsters how to defend the ground.
In the past month or so the emphasis has been on ball movement and ball control.
Despite losing to Golden Square by 79 points in round six, there were signs that evening at Dower Park that the Roos' ball movement was improving.
That improvement, combined with an opponent of inferior quality to Golden Square, led to a breakout performance by the Roos against Maryborough.
Not only was the 18.10 (118) to 15.5 (95) win the club's first victory since round 14, 2019, it was the first time the club has kicked more than 100 points since round 14, 2018.
"It feels like we've worked on basics a lot,'' Flaherty said.
"We identified early on after some big losses that we were defending the whole game.
"If we could control the ball a bit more, and maintain possession, it felt like it gave us a reprieve from defending.
"That's been a bit more of our emphasis lately and we did that more against Maryborough.
"The (Maryborough) game was more open and we were able to get better entries to our forwards."
It was just the third time since the start of 2018 that the Roos have scored more than 100 points.
The next step in their development is to be more competitive against the higher-ranked clubs.
That starts with a trip to the Queen Elizabeth Oval this Saturday to play South Bendigo.
"We've got South Bendigo at the QEO and then Castlemaine at home before we start over again,'' Flaherty said.
"South is going well, but with this young group you take it as it comes...if we can start the game well you just never know what could happen."
Success breeds success and Flaherty said the emotion of Saturday's first win at Princes Park gave everyone at the club a lift.
"It was a bit different in that we couldn't use the rooms,'' Flaherty said.
"We had to stay outside, but the netball had just finished as well, so there was a bit of atmosphere around the group.
"Everyone was happy to see a good result go our way."
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