A FINAL-QUARTER rally helped the Bathurst Giants to its third win of the Central West AFL season on Saturday, prevailing 14-20-104 to 13-8-86 at George Park 1.
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The visiting Saints led by one point after a tight opening term and went into both the half-time and three-quarter-time breaks ahead of the Giants.
However, the Bathurst side was still in reach and a five-goal final period was enough to see the Giants over the line.
“That’s good, that’s three wins now – but look at the behinds, we kicked 20 behinds,” Giants coach Mark Kennedy said.
“We had effective entry into the forward 50, but it was just a bit scrappy. The wind was a factor, it was a breezy sort of day which doesn’t help.
“But I was happy with the midfield, we rucked well and when you’ve got Jenko [Paul Jenkins] and Dave Manning in the middle moving the ball forward, it was good.”
Though Young held a one-goal lead heading into the final term to be a chance of ending a two-match losing run against the Giants, Kennedy’s men kept their composure.
Kennedy said he was always confident they could get the job done.
“Yes, I thought we could win because we hadn’t played up to the standard of football that we have set ourselves now,” he said.
“I had a bit of talk to the guys at three-quarter-time and said we just need to control the ball better, get it a bit cleaner, and we did.
“We did that and we controlled the bounce back. We pushed into our forward line then built a wall, so every time it came out, it came out to either young Nick Broes or to James [Kennedy], David Hitchick.
“They controlled the ball and sent it back in and Young was under the pump a little bit.”
Though Young missed out on what would have been its second win of the season, Kennedy thinks the Saints can be a threat if it can keep its playing group together.
“Young has improved heaps since last time we played them. They’ve got a few players back, they’ve got Hamish [Gledhill] up front and their coach was devastating through the middle,” he said.