AUSTRALIAN RULES
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There was to be no repeat of a Bathurst Bushrangers Central West AFL win over the competition leaders on Saturday as the Orange Tigers ran out winners at Bloomfield Oval.
The Bushrangers may have gone in with plenty of confidence after taking down Orange a fortnight ago, but they couldn’t repeat the feat, going down 17-13-115 to 8-8-56 against an improved Tigers outfit.
Bushrangers co-coach Brett Archer said the Tigers stepped their game up from the last meeting and took his side out of the contest in the second half.
“We kept in touch with them up until midway through the third quarter. Up until that point it was probably looking like our best quarter of football,” he said.
“We were scrappy with our inside 50s. The biggest difference between this match and the last one is that their defence stepped up and so did their intensity.”
Just three goals were kicked in the opening quarter as Orange led by 10 points at the first break.
The Tigers began to put the foot down in the second quarter to make it 6-7-43 to 3-2-20 at half-time.
The Bushrangers looked to claw their way back with early goals next period but couldn’t match the Tigers’ slick play through the middle.
Archer said his team lost the battle in midfield, and with it, the match.
“The match showed up some deficiencies in our attack,” he said.
“Our midfield was also not at its best. That’s the area that’s always been the battlefield for us against Orange. Coming out of our backline was a problem.
“Seb Matheson will be back next week and he’s one of our major possession-getters at half-forward.
“We had Ben Horn away as well and he’s returning. The good thing is that everyone’s still keen to get back into training and work hard.”
While the Tigers found six goals in the opening half, they picked up 11 in the second to send a reminder to the Bushrangers of who sits atop the table.
Only one major came the way of the visitors in the final quarter as they were squeezed out of the contest.
Peter Grundy kicked three goals for Bathurst, while Tim Barry led the way for Orange with the same tally.
ORANGE TIGERS 17.13 (115) (Timothy Barry 3, Leigh Turner 2, Dale Cameron 2, Jaydan Phillips 2, Matt Dippolito 2, Michael Rothnie 2, Jeremy Tuson 2, Daniel Sadler, Josh Bubnich) defeated BATHURST BUSHRANGERS 8.8 (56) (Peter Grundy 3, Emmitt Carr-Smith 2, Bill Watterson, Nathan Belbin, Michael Long)