THE Bathurst Bushrangers Outlaws sealed the Central West AFL minor premiership in style on Saturday with a 31-32-218 to 1-4-10 win over the Bathurst Giants.
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While the Giants were below strength for the match at George Park 1 and massive underdogs, Outlaws coach Brett Archer still had some specific goals for his men.
He not only wanted the win – the Outlaws’ 16th from 17 games – but he wanted his side to fine tune things ahead of the semi-finals.
They did just that with 12 different players finishing with at least one major to their name.
“I think Giants got us on a good day basically, I think we were pretty pumped for this one,” Archer said.
“Our fitness was the major thing we talked about before the game basically, playing four good quarters of football, run all the way through.
“Going into the semi-final we wanted to make sure we could put together four good quarters of football and it was probably the best effort I have seen from the guys all year.
“In other games we’ve had shocking quarters basically. Our goals going into this game were to be consistent throughout, keep the structure, keep the processes going and we did that. That is what impressed me most.”
The Outlaws players showed their intent from the opening bounce – rather than having a relaxed approached the Bushrangers made their rivals earn every possession.
By quarter-time Outlaws led 10-6-66 to 0-1-1 and that effort was backed up with a second solid term.
Giants were restricted to one behind in the second quarter while Outlaws booted another seven majors to lead 17-10-112 to 0-2-2 at half-time.
After the long break the Outlaws did as Archer had requested and maintained intensity. When the final siren sounded, it marked the biggest win for his men this season.
Matt Archer booted seven goals for the victors, but it was 16-year-old Chaise Edwards who earned players’ player honours.
“He was the smallest kid out there by far and he was making hits on guys three times bigger than him and went hard at the ball,” Brett Archer said.
“It was quite inspirational. We put him forward to try and get him to kick a goal in the last quarter, but he kept going back in the midfield and every time a player had the ball he seemed like he was tackling them – it was brilliant.”
With Dubbo upsetting Cowra 12-12-84 to 7-7-49 in the final round, Outlaws finished four points clear in the minor premiership.
The Bathurst side averaged 118 points per game and finished with an impressive 278.18 for and against percentage.
“Splitting the team up we didn’t really know what was going to happen, we would have been happy just to make the semis at the start of the year,” Archer said.
“As the season progressed that [minor premiership] definitely became our goal.”
This Saturday the Outlaws will be playing against Cowra for a place in the grand final. Opening bounce at Bathurst’s George Park will be at 2.30pm.
The minor semi-final will also be staged in Bathurst on Saturday, with the Bushrangers Rebels to fight the Dubbo Demons for survival from noon.