In searing conditions, small forward Joe Richards was the stand-out as the Magpies held the upper hand for most of the match.

Richards kicked three goals from seven shots, full-back Jamie Anderson played well on Brandon Symes and Brad Melville bobbed up with some impressive patches of play.

Wangaratta were missing a handful of premiership players including Dylan Van Berlo and Daniel Boyle and recruit Mat Suckling and hope to play a near full-strength side against Kyabram this weekend.

“I wasn’t really interested in the score, but the main thing we took from the game was that we improved from two weeks ago,” Stone said.

“We were still a bit clunky but our ball movement was better and we got good game time into more players.

“Matt Kelly played three quarters and so did Michael Newton and Matt Grossman and hopefully we can find some more synergy against Kyabram next week.”

Yarrawonga has vowed to go with youth this season and coach Damien Sexton had plenty on show at the weekend with Mark Whiley the pick of the Pigeons’ midfield.

Albury bounced back from last weekend’s hefty loss with a 10-goal win over Benalla.

The Tigers’ experienced heads of Daniel Cross, Dean Heta and Brady Morton were solid while youngster Rhys King applied plenty of forward-line pressure.

Wodonga Raiders rounded off an impressive pre-season with a nine-goal drubbing of Ballarat at Ballarat.

With the strong-marking Sam Stubbs again providing a focal point, the Raiders peppered the ball forward with Brodie Filo never far from the action.

North Albury defeated Coolamon by 148 points.

With the Hoppers almost at full strength with the exception of Mitch Mahady, coach Clinton Gilson was pleased with the way his side gelled.

George Godde, Clay Moscher-Thomas, Isaac Muller, Lachie Taylor-Nugent and Julian Hayes were prominent for the victors.

Muller looked imposing in attack, kicking six goals against the under-sized Coolamon defence.

“They had 10 or 12 out and we were only missing a couple, but it was still good to get some confidence ahead of round one,” Gilson said.

“We knew it would be tough in the first game against a top-three side in Wodonga Raiders, then we had a more even match against Tatura and then Coolamon.”

Contracted Corowa-Rutherglen forward James Lawton starred for Mansfield in its comfortable win over Wangaratta Rovers.

His clearance dispute is set to go to appeal in coming weeks.