STRATHFIELDSAYE is the Bendigo Football-Netball League's new ladder-leader, while Golden Square produced its best performance of the season on Saturday to set up a mouth-watering showdown between the two next weekend.

Strathfieldsaye's win over Maryborough, coupled with Golden Square knocking over Sandhurst in impressive fashion, now has the Storm, Dragons and Bulldogs as the three top teams all with 9-2 records and separated by just percentage.

And one game back are both Gisborne and South Bendigo, meaning only four points separates first to fifth with seven rounds to play.

Golden Square coach Christian Carter labelled his side's 36-point win over arch-rival Sandhurst as the Bulldogs' most complete performance of the season.

The Bulldogs kicked the first four goals of the game, were never headed and led by as many as 49 points before finishing 17.12 (114) to 11.12 (78) victors to win their seventh game in a row.

"We've got a big focus on just having 22 blokes play their role and I don't think we had anyone down today," Carter said.

"The back six was enormous, we kicked a good score and the midfield gave us a great effort again."

The Bulldogs' win featured 11 goals from their two gun forwards in the classy Joel Brett (six) and strong-marking Jayden Burke (five).

For the Dragons, who had been the ladder-leaders all season up until Saturday, they have now lost two of their past three following their 8-0 start.

In other round 12 games on Saturday, Strathfieldsaye kicked 19 goals to two after quarter-time to defeat Maryborough by 107 points at Princes Park.

The Magpies started superbly to lead the Storm by seven points at quarter-time, before the reigning premiers assumed control to win 22.17 (149) to 6.6 (42).

South Bendigo's Kaiden Antonowicz starred with a 10-goal haul as the Bloods beat Kyneton 15.14 (104) to 9.12 (66) at the QEO to win their fourth game in a row.

It was Antonowicz's second double-figure bag in three games after kicking 11 against Maryborough a fortnight earlier.

Eaglehawk comfortably beat Castlemaine by 137 points and Gisborne with four debutantes defeated Kangaroo Flat by 90 points.

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