The Bombers barely gave the home side a sniff in the 17.17 (119) to 2.11 (23) demolition at Memorial Oval, continuing their unbeaten start to the season with another display of both offensive variety and defensive grit.
Coach Corey Carver credited the group’s growing maturity and improved fitness as key reasons for their consistency across the first nine rounds.
“Probably just maturity I think,” Carver said.
“Another year on, a little bit older, a lot of our younger guys have grown up a little and playing better as a result, which is a good thing.
“Then I think just overall being fitter than last year. Not only did we have some injuries last year, but once we got to this part of the year we didn’t have a fitness base that was as good as this.”
Once again, it was a spread of goal kickers that did the damage, with 10 players hitting the scoreboard. Jack Russell finished with four, Archie Watt with three, while Zac Cerrone and Riley Ironside each added two.
“Well it’s what you want isn’t it?” Carver said.
“Because if you limit that to one or two then you become fairly predictable with what you do.
“It’s certainly something we’re keen to keep and continue because it’s harder to defend when you’ve got a large spread of guys kicking goals.”
While the margin was dominant, the Bombers missed opportunities to extend it even further, finishing with 17.17.
But Carver wasn’t too concerned about the inaccuracy.
“It was both ways — they missed a heap too,” he said.
“It wasn’t that windy, I reckon both teams had shots that were outside of what I’d class as the easy areas.
“We had some shots from the boundary and stuff, which doesn’t help. So yeah, you want to kick straighter, but I understand how it happens.”
The defensive end held up its end of the bargain, keeping Euroa to two goals and 11 behinds — a feat Carver credited to a combination of experience and effort.
“Jason Morgan at 39 is still a gun, I had him as our best player yesterday, that helps,” he said.
“Brad Whitford’s obviously very good as well … and probably our work rate from our mids to get back and help. They’re working their backsides off to get back as well.”
The league’s biggest test awaits next weekend, as the Bombers host fellow contender, Shepparton Swans, in a round 10 blockbuster.
Asked what that preparation looks like, Carver said the messaging wouldn’t change too much, but the players needed to be locked in.
“Mentally, you just want to make sure you’re staying on the job,” he said.
“They’ve got a really good spread as well, some really good young running players … they’re not at the top for no reason. It’ll be a full team defence with a full team defence switched on.”
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