BRENDAN Cairns experienced the sweet taste of a maiden success as an Ovens and Murray coach in emphatic style as Wangaratta thrashed a disappointing Wangaratta Rovers by 42 points in yesterday’s Wang Derby to record their first victory of the season.
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The Magpies dominated from start to finish on the back of a stunning display from midfield generals Jamie Allan (43 possessions), Matt Kelly (27) and Daine Porter (31), running out comprehensive 13.11 (89) to 6.11 (47) victors.
“It doesn’t matter who we were playing, it was just fantastic to win,” Cairns said.
“It creates a bit of confidence in the group, when you start 0-4 it is tough to always continue on with the confidence.
“I was shattered after last week, it wasn’t just the last quarter at Lavington, we didn’t play how we wanted to playl, but I thought today we executed that fairly well over a four-quarter period.”
The Rovers had first use of a strong breeze blowing to the city end of the ground, but Wangaratta controlled the play to lead by three points at quarter-time before blowing the match open with seven unanswered goals in the second term to lead by 44 at the main break.
The task facing the Rovers was the same as last week’s amazing win over Myrtleford, but Wang- aratta got out by 56 points in the third quarter before a late rally cut it to 38 at the final change.
The Magpies held firm in the last quarter.
Jamie Anderson marshalled the defence brilliantly, Xavier Norden and Michael Bordignon blanketed Dan McCullough and Alex Marklew respectively, and Justin Hoggan and Matt Westhoff (three goals) providing strong targets in the absence of the injured Joel Harris and Dylan van Berlo.
Cairns was delighted, but the same couldn’t be said of Rovers coach Paul Maher, who questioned his players’ commitment.
“Sean O’Keefe can’t do it all for us, Tyson Hartwig can’t do it all for us, we need other guys around the ground to step up, blokes who have had a few games experience under their belt, but we’re leaving it to too few.”