WODONGA Raiders co-coach Simon Bone hasn’t been lulled into a false sense of security after the Raiders stormed home to edge out Wangaratta by five points on Saturday.
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Trailing by roughly six goals at half-time, a four-goal blitz from star forward Dean Limbach in the third quarter turned the contest on its head as Brad Hibberson, Wagga recruit Tom Marlow, Brock Knights, Zac Pleming and playing coach Ben Klemke ran into form.
Limbach finished with five goals.
But the second-half turnaround wasn’t fooling the non-playing mentor ahead of the Raiders’ crucial first round showdown against Myrtleford.
“We’ll taking something out of it but it wasn’t pretty at all,” Bone said.
“We’ve got a fair bit of work to do.
“I thought we had a reasonable amount of the footy in the first half but we kept slaughtering it.
“It wasn’t because of pressure, either, it was just poor decision making and we kept coughing it up.
“So we really need to fix those errors.”
Matt Grossman, Jamie Allan and Daine Porter dug in for the Pies.
Elsewhere, Adam Prior put his clearance saga behind him with a promising five-goal haul for new club Lavington as the Panthers tore Eltham apart on Saturday.
The Northern Football League club managed just one goal for the game as the Panthers stormed to a formidable 116-point win at home.
Tom Yensch booted three goals and Adam Flagg ran riot for the Panthers, who were missing star recruit Justin Koschitzke.
North Albury showed signs it may be better than many expect with a competitive showing against NEAFL heavyweight Queanbeyan before losing by 25 points.
The Canberra-based Tigers beat flag contender Albury by 33 points earlier this pre-season.
The Ovens and Murray powerhouse, meanwhile, has plenty of work to do itself after a three-goal loss to Benalla.
The Tigers were impressive in beating Eastlake just over a week ago, but had that result split by two losses.
Yarrawonga lost to Goulburn Valley premier Kyabram by 10 points.