The Hawks found their way through the Bulldogs' Wade Street fortress to claim their best win of the season.

They achieved it by clamping the Bulldogs' ball movement.

Golden Square had more possessions (327-303) and more marks (88-73), which has been par for the course in their run of good form.

However, this time around the Dogs couldn't generate scores.

From their 327 possessions they only had 39 inside 50s for the game. In comparison, Eaglehawk had 63 inside 50s. The Hawks took 13 marks inside 50 to Square's six.

The only other games Square's forwards were held to such a low number of marks inside forward 50 were the round eight loss to Gisborne and round six defeat to Kyneton.

The Hawks had a great spread of contributors, led by Billy Evans (27 disposals, 10 clearances), Dillon Williams (29 touches, seven clearances), Zane Carter (27 disposals), Clayton Holmes (27 disposals) and Ben Thompson (24 possessions, seven marks).

The Dogs had few four-quarter contributors, with a number of senior players well below their best.

Skipper Jack Geary could hold his head high - 39 possessions and 11 marks.

The cold and windy conditions didn't make for great footy, but the four points was all that mattered to two sides trying to qualify for the finals.

South's five-goal burst in the first 13 minutes proved to be the difference in a game where little separated the two sides on the stats sheet.

Kyneton tried to beat South Bendigo at its own game by playing a high possession brand of footy.

The Tigers had more disposals (366-349), more marks (125) and more inside 50s (53-51), but they couldn't turn those strong numbers into enough goals on the scoreboard.

Individually, the Bloods got more out of their key players.

Cooper Leon (30 possessions, 12 marks) was influential across half-back in his first game back from injury.

Michael Herlihy's 26 possession and two-goal game was crucial in a tight contest. Ditto Brock Harvey - 20 possessions and three goals - and Will Keck - 19 possessions and four goals.

Kyneton's possession game was marshalled by key defender Harrison Huntley (27 kicks, four handballs and 10 marks), while wingman Louis Phillips (23 possessions) had his best game of the season.

Defender Steve Georgiou (23 possessions and 13 marks), midfielder Caleb Fisher (26 possessions) and forward/midfielder Rhys Magin (26 possessions and two goals) were solid contributors.

The Storm love playing on their home turf where they make the most of the wide open spaces.

Their ball movement and hard running was too much for the young Magpies to handle.

The Storm had 469 disposals for the day - 363 of them were uncontested.

As a result, the marks (143-77) and inside 50s (68-24) were one-sided.

The Storm took 34 marks inside 50 to Castlemaine five.

Jake Moorhead continues to basically play with his own footy - 45 possessions against the Pies to continue his remarkable season.

Daniel Clohesy had a career-best game in terms of stats - 43 possessions, 12 marks and six clearances.

Bo Alexander (41 possessions, 13 marks), Riley Wilson (34 possessions, 11 marks and seven clearances) and Caleb Sheahan (29 touches, 10 marks and three goals) had great games, while Lachlan Sharp kicked 8.3 from 20 touches and eight marks.

Tommy Horne was again the standout player for Castlemaine.

The midfielder had 33 possessions, five marks and six clearances.

Riley Pedretti (20 possessions and eight marks) was solid for the Pies.

The Gisborne-Maryborough stats sheet was even more one-sided than the Strathfieldsaye and Castlemaine numbers.

The Bulldogs led the possessions (491-299), marks (159-98), clearances (49-30) and inside 50s (92-15).

The marks inside 50 were 42 for Gisborne and 0 for Maryborough.

Gisborne's ability to share the footy led to some huge individual numbers.

Midfielders Ethan Minns (38 possessions, 12 marks and three goals) and Flynn Lakey (36 possessions) ran riot, while defender Liam Spear (33 possessions, 15 marks) continued his great form.

Ruckman Braidon Blake had a day out, with 30 disposals, eight marks, 36 hit outs and 12 clearances).

Pat McKenna blew away the cobwebs in his first game back from injury, with 25 touches, 13 marks and five goals.

On the other side of the coin, the stats line that stood out for the Pies was that of coach Rick Andrews.

One of the BFNL's premier midfielders in the late 90s and early 2000s, Andrews came out of retirement to assist his injury-riddled side and had 29 disposals - 22 kicks and seven handballs.

Skipper Coby Perry (38 touches, eight marks and 10 clearances) and youngsters Liam Latch (37 possessions, nine marks) and Kya Lanfranchi (32 disposals, 13 marks) carried a heavy load for the Pies.

Unfortunately, technical issues prevented the filming of a large section of the Roos-Dragons clash at Dower Park.

As a result, we don't have access to Premier Data's full statistical analysis of the match.

RANKING POINTS

Braidon Blake (Gis) 190

Pat McKenna (Gis) 172

Daniel Clohesy (SS) 166

Riley Wilson (SS) 163

Jack Geary (GS) 159

Joseph Mayes (SS) 154

Jake Moorhead (SS) 147

Bo Alexander (SS) 147

Liam Spear (Gis) 145

Kya Lanfranchi (Mb) 144

DISPOSALS

Jake Moorhead (SS) 45

Daniel Clohesy (SS) 43

Bo Alexander (SS) 41

Jack Geary (GS) 39

Coby Perry (Mb) 38

Ethan Minns (Gis) 38

Liam Latch (Mb) 37

Flynn Lakey (Gis) 36

Riley Wilson (SS) 34

Liam Spear (Gis) 33

CONTESTED DISPOSALS

Jake Moorhead (SS) 20

Coby Perry (Mb) 18

Dillon Williams (Eh) 16

Liam Latch (Mb) 14

Flynn Lakey (Gis) 14

Ethan Minns (Gis) 12

Braidon Blake (Gis) 12

Noah Wheeler (Eh) 12

Tommy Horne (Cm) 12

Billy Evans (Eh) 11

MARKS

Liam Spear (Gis) 15

Kya Lanfranchi (Mb) 13

Pat McKenna (Gis) 13

Steven Georgiou (Kyn) 13

Bo Alexander (SS) 13

Ethan Minns (Gis) 12

Cooper Leon (SB) 12

Daniel Clohesy (SS) 12

Jack Geary (GS) 11

Riley Wilson (SS) 11

CLEARANCES

Braidon Blake (Gis) 12

Coby Perry (Mb) 10

Billy Evans (Eh) 10

Ricky Monti (GS) 8

Flynn Lakey (Gis) 7

Dillon Williams (Eh) 7

Liam Collins (KF) 7

Riley Wilson (SS) 7

Joseph Mayes (Gis) 7

Liam Latch (Mb) 6

LOOSE BALL GETS

Jake Moorhead (SS) 12

Thomas Gardam (Mb) 10

Liam Latch (Mb) 10

Ethan Minns (Gis) 10

Flynn Lakey (Gis) 10

Dillon Williams (Eh) 10

Liam Collins (KF) 10

Braidon Blake (Gis) 9

Michael Herlihey (SB) 9

Samuel Maher (SB) 9

HARD BALL GETS

Billy Evans (Eh) 8

Noah Wheeler (Eh) 8

Dillon Williams (Eh) 8

Jon Coe (GS) 6

Daniel Clohesy (SS) 6

Tom Fraser (Gis) 5

Zane Carter (Eh) 5

Jake Moorhead (SS) 5

Riley Wilson (SS) 5

Bo Alexander (SS) 5

TACKLES

Aidan Hare (Mb) 15

Jack Hickman (GS) 11

Steven Georgiou (Kyn) 11

Declan Slingo (Cm) 10

Jarrod Fitzpatrick (GS) 9

Nick Doolan (Gis) 8

Ricky Monti (GS) 8

Terry Reeves (GS) 8

Hamish Yunghanns (Kyn) 8

Bailey McGee (Kyn) 8

SCORE INVOLVEMENTS

Ethan Minns (Gis) 14

Braidon Blake (Gis) 12

Caleb Sheahan (Gis) 12

Riley Wilson (SS) 12

Lachlan Sharp (SS) 10

Jake Moorhead (SS) 10

Bo Alexander (SS) 10

Scott Walsh (Gis) 9

Flynn Lakey (Gis) 9

James Schischka (SS) 8

SPOILS

Daniel Johnstone (SB) 11

Kya Lanfranchi (Mb) 8

Liam Rodgers (Gis) 5

James Coghlan (Sh) 5

Harrison Free (Sh) 5

Andrew Vanheumen (SB) 5

Brady Neill (Mb) 4

Jack Reaper (Gis) 4

Zack Shelton (GS) 4

Shaun Knott (Eh) 4

HIT OUTS

Matt Compston (GS) 48

James Orr (Kyn) 38

Braidon Blake (Gis) 36

Sam Nettleton (Cm) 30

Joseph Mayes (SS) 29

Brady Neill (Mb) 24

Jack Lawton (Eh) 18

Riley Walsh (SB) 14

Guy Dickson (Kyn) 12

Jake Hall (SS) 12

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