THE Bathurst Giants were given a hard-hitting dose of reality on Saturday afternoon as the Bathurst Bushrangers Outlaws administered a flogging at George Park, winning by 192 points in their first ever meeting.

Cameron Richards (nine) and Nathan Swards (six) combined for 15 goals between them as the Outlaws ran away to win 31-17-213 to 3-3-21 in the round three Central West AFL clash.

They were able to keep the Giants goal-less in three of the four quarters and ominously for the other teams in the competition, Outlaws co-coach Brett Archer said there was nothing remarkable about their performance.

“We won by a lot, nearly 200, but most of us felt afterwards that we could have played better,” he said.

“The second term was about as bad as we’ve played so far this season, our expectations are a bit higher than what we delivered on Saturday.

“Our decision making was pretty poor at times, we were kicking to contests when we had unmarked players and our delivery to the forward line wasn’t as good as it could have been, that’s been an issue in a few games already.”

The chances of a boilover were always minimal and the Outlaws made sure the idea of a contest was killed off quickly. They produced a stunning eight-goal burst to open proceedings while limiting the Giants to a solitary behind in the first quarter.

They led by 54 points at quarter-time.

To their credit the Giants did manage to get their side of the scoreboard ticking over in the second quarter, booting three goals, but their defence was still haemorrhaging and the Outlaws slammed home another seven majors.

At half-time the Outlaws led by 83, and though they were relatively quiet in the third stanza with five goals, they flexed their muscle once more in the last with another 11 to really blow the score out.

The only sticking point, aside from their skill and decision errors alluded to by Archer, was a broken collarbone to Dan Crofts following a heavy hit. 

It was an injury accentuated by the fact that Crofts was only back this season from a lengthy knee injury.

“Cameron Richards kicking nine was outstanding, he does things so effortlessly and his marking in particular has been a real feature of his football so far,” Archer said.

“Bill Watterson was probably the other player who really stood out, he just cut them up through the middle of the ground.

“It is hard to judge the back line because they didn’t really see a lot of the ball, but when needed to they did their job well.”

The Outlaws face the Dubbo Demons in their next match while the Giants meet the in-form Parkes team but will have an extra week to recover from Saturday’s loss thanks to a general bye this weekend. 

BATHURST BUSHRANGERS 31-17-213 (Cameron Richards 9, Nathan Swards 6, Casey White 3, Tom Galloway 2, Bill Watterson 2, Matt Archer 2, Michael Long, John Ellis, Kieran Ball, Peter Grundy, Brian Matheson, Adrian Hickey, Adam Ryan) defeated BATHURST GIANTS 3-3-21 (James Leslie, Michael Borg, David Jackson)