But a second half blitz helped the Bathurst Bushrangers Outlaws ease to a big 108-point win over the Bathurst Giants in Central West AFL action at George Park on Saturday in miserable conditions.

While the sun was out, the rain in the days leading up to the game and the freezing temperatures made it a tough day for players and spectators, before the Outlaws solidified their top-two spot with a 15-24-114 to 1-0-6 victory.

There have been bigger wins in the competition in recent years, but given the weather conditions, there have been few in which the ball has spent so much time in one half of the field.

The Giants were dogged in the first half and thanks to some gutsy defence and the Outlaws’ inaccuracy in front of goal – they kicked 3-8 for the half – they managed to get to half-time trailing 26-6.

They proved to be no match for the Outlaws thereafter, and even allowing for the conditions, the winners can be content in going three quarters without conceding a single point.

“It was scrappy. It took us a while to get away from trying to play dry weather footy and to start just trying to win the ball and get it long as quickly as possible. We were handballing and using short kicks too much,” Outlaws co-coach Brett Archer said.

“We did get better as we went on. In the third quarter I don’t remember the ball getting into our half and we lifted our intensity right up compared to where it had been earlier on.

“I think we finished the game with really good legs, too – that was a big contributing factor on the scoreboard.”

There were a couple of anomalies in the game, the obvious one being the Giants’ scorelessness after quarter-time.

They trailed 3-7 to a single goal at the first break, and then, in one of the most bizarre quarters seen in the competition in living memory, only a solitary point was kicked between the two teams from quarter-time through to the main break.

The lack of scoreboard action combined with the muddy conditions ensured that it wasn’t a period of football worth writing home about.

Things lifted after half-time, the Outlaws nailing 12 goals in the last two quarters to earn a percentage-boosting win.

“It was pretty ugly stuff – terrible to watch at times, and the conditions didn’t make it any easier,” Archer said. 

“It was extremely tough for all the players.

“Campbell Martin in the ruck was probably our best player. He was dominant and got all the players’ player votes. 

“He really inspired us to get over the ball and play hard footy, but across the field we were pretty strong and had no passengers.

“It is a big weekend coming up for us now. We play Dubbo, who are red hot, and I’ll be sitting down with the Rebels coaches at some point this week to try and get some info about how the Demons went about things on Saturday. 

“This will be our hardest game for a while.”

BATHURST BUSHRANGERS OUTLAWS 15-24-114 (Nathan Swards 4, Tim Hunter 3, Cameron Richards 2, Adam Ryan 2, Matt Archer, Emmitt Carr-Smith, Josh Coyte, Ricky Webb goals) defeated BATHURST GIANTS 1-0-6 (Josh Broes)