With the Brookers leading by two goals and in complete control, Alec Sullivan was marched following a melee and the home team responded by kicking the next six majors of the match.

There was no coming back as young ruckman Mitch Thomas, Myles Aalbers, Nick Turner, Chris Hutchinson, Ryan Lavery and Justin Gordon held the momentum to see the Giants to their first win of the season.

It was a disastrous second-half for Holbrook who lost Josh Jones with ligament damage in his ankle.

Aalbers was pleased to bounce back from last weekend’s loss to Culcairn.

“It was great to come back like that,” he said.

“The challenge for us now is to play that way every week.”

Aalbers was outstanding with eight goals while Thomas dominated the hit-outs and took some telling marks.

Turner came alive with four goals when it counted and Hutchinson, Gordon and Lavery picked up valuable touches when the game was in the balance.

Holbrook speedster Curtis Steele was best afield with the former Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong player’s long kicking a feature.

He booted the ball to the centre circle with a kick-in from fullback during the second-half.

Andrew Mackinlay was a constant threat with four goals and Jones won plenty of touches before being injured.

Both teams went into the clash without key players with the Giants missing Brendan Simmons and Daniel Lieschke and Holbrook sorely missing ruckman Aaron Baker.

Howlong recovered from a slow start to defeat Henty by 26 points.

After trailing by 19 points at quarter-time, the Spiders lifted their workrate on the back of good performances from Peter Hancock, Bradley Palipuaminni, Tim Brook and Matt McDonald.

Hancock and Swampie big-man Brent Ohlin had an epic battle in the ruck with the honours being split.

Coach Joel Price was delighted with the result.

“They jumped us and were all over us but after quarter-time we came out a different side,” Price said.

“Our pressure was up and our ball use excellent.

“When we picked the best players at the end of the game, it was really difficult because we had winners all over the ground.”

Ohlin, Peter Winnett and Josh Spencer were solid for Henty.

Murray Magpies were pushed to the limit before defeating CDHBU by 23 points.

They led by two points at the last change but motored home through Ben Clements, Hayden Edwards and Ash Murray.

CDHBU were best served by Mick Collins, Russell Anderson and Jeremy Stevenson.

Osborne edged out Culcairn by nine points, Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock trounced Lockhart by 86 points with Justin Koschitzke kicking six and Jindera defeated Billabong Crows by 128 points.