Playing in wet and muddy conditions at George Park 2, the Demons held the Giants scoreless in the opening term while booting four goals five for a 29-point lead.

Things were more even after that, but the Giants could not make up the deficit.

“Dubbo got off to a really good start and it was just matter of trying to claw it back,” Giants coach Mark Kennedy said.

“Our second quarter and third quarter were pretty good and we kicked two goals in the last quarter, but Dubbo were just too good for us on the day.”

Heading into the contest with renewed confidence after picking up their first win of the season the previous Saturday, the Giants had some good targets inside 50.

But conditions made it hard for the experienced Leigh Kingwell and Jeremy Russell, who had kicked four goals seven days earlier, to get quality possession.

“The conditions were disgusting, it was a quagmire,” Kennedy said.

“There was no skill involved in those conditions, it went out the window. It was just a matter of who could move the ball forward as best they could. There was a lot of dropped marks and fumbling.”

The Giants got on the board in the second quarter and by the long break they were still in the contest as they trailed 5-5-35 to 1-4-10.

However, in the third quarter the hosts could only manage one behind to the Demons’ three additional majors.

From there Dubbo closed out the match.

Kingwell, Kev Walker and Josh Broes kicked majors for the Giants in a match where Dubbo impressed Kennedy.

“They can be competitive and if they can get back into that top four, then who knows what might happen? A lot of people have probably written them off, but I wouldn’t count them out just yet,” he said.