BARNAWARTHA ruthlessly exposed the gulf between itself and finals contender Mitta United with a 42-point demolition of the Blues at Barnawartha on Saturday.
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After an even opening quarter, the Tigers flexed their muscles, booting 15 goals to six to score a runaway 19.7 (121) to 12.7 (79) victory.
The Tigers' multi-pronged attack of Peter Cook, Josh Spence, Jarrod Williams, Daryl Webb, Matt Dalbosco and Cameron McNeill proved to be the difference.
All bobbed-up at different stages while the visitors heavily relied on Drew Cameron to kick a winning score.
Cameron was outstanding in a losing side to finish with seven goals.
Cook labelled the victory the Tigers' best of the season so far ahead of another crunch clash against second placed Chiltern in a fortnight.
"We knew what Mitta bring to the table - they just love to make it a dog fight and grind away all match," Cook said.
"So we just wanted to focus on our strengths and hopefully the result would take care of itself.
"We still have got a few guys to come back into the side but the pleasing thing from a coaching point of view is the young guys continue to impress.
"I suppose we let an opportunity slip against Kiewa so this is our best performance of the season so far.
"We thought we had the firepower up forward to do some damage and I thought we were able to expose that today."
Tiger match-winner Spence was best-on-ground.
Spence provided a lively marking target across half-forward and set the home side alight after quarter-time with some trademark grabs.
Four-time Barton medallist McNeill also proved damaging whether playing in the midfield or in attack.
With a strong on-ball division, the Tigers have the luxury of resting McNeill forward for extended parts of matches and he chipped in with two goals.
Matt McLinden, Kyle McNamara and Adam Elias who had a good battle with Blues big man Ben Dower in the ruck, were also prominent.
Jaxon Crowe, Ben Williams and Jordan Peters battled hard for the visitors.
Cook said the return of Webb who played his first senior match of the season after doing his Achilles last year was significant.
"Webby kicked three and set-up a couple of others and is an important addition to our attack," he said
"We have still got up to five players that can come into the side so there is plenty of pressure to perform each week."
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