After dropping eight successive matches, the Spiders stormed out of the blocks with the experienced heads of Joel Price, Matt McDonald and Tim Brook proving the difference.

The win leaves Howlong out of the top six on percentage with a reasonable run home against Lockhart, CDHBU, Murray Magpies and Brock-Burrum.

Price said the victory was a huge relief after being winless since May 6.

“It’s been a long eight weeks and it’s good to get some reward for the effort the boys have been putting in,” Price said.

“We set ourselves for a really good start and kicked 6.4 to set it up.

“It was great to hold on after that as we finished without a bench.

“At the end of the day, we wanted a win and needed to do whatever we could to get over the line.

“Hopefully we can back it up against Lockhart next week.”

Brook and McDonald dominated the clearances for Howlong while Price used his experience across half-forward to kick six goals.

Will McCormack, Peter Hancock and Blake Williams also played well.

The Crows sprung a surprise by starting Al Austin in attack, but they were forced to move him back into defence early due to Howlong’s midfield dominance.

Nick Morris, Mick Hamilton , Zach Kerr and Saml Herzich fought the match out for the visitors.

Henty brothers Heath and Brent Ohlin combined to sink Rand-Walbundrie-Walla by 47 points at Walla.

Heath dominated the midfield for the Swampies as the visitors raced to a 32-point lead by quarter-time while Brent’s marking inside 50-metres netted him four goals.

Andrew Hill, Josh Gaynor, Rhett Thomson and Mason Gilfillan also won plenty of the ball to show why Henty cannot be left out of premiership calculations.

The Giants were best served by Tom Simmons and Lewis McRae.

Culcairn defeated arch rivals Holbrook by 43 points.

With Jye Shields, Adam Eady, Dane Hallinan and Jamie Robbins in everything, the Lions seized control in the third quarter to go a long way towards securing a spot in the finals.

Robbins kicked seven goals while Hallinan showed his class in kicking five.

Simon Turner, Alec Sullivan and Curtis Steele were instrumental in Holbrook leading by seven points at half-time.

Osborne defeated Murray Magpies by 64 points at Osborne.

The Magpies kicked their only two goals in the final quarter as they battled to nullify the dominance of Pat  Delaney, Andrew Madden, George Alexander and Matt Rava.

Michael Sims and Shannon Gilson tried hard for the visitors.

Justin Koschitzke kicked 11 goals in Brock-Burrum’s 67-point win over CDHBU.

Jindera edged out a dangerous Lockhart by eight points with Michael D'Arcy starring.