For the first time in the club’s short history, Bathurst Giants have defeat local rivals Bathurst Bushrangers Rebels at George Park 1 on Saturday afternoon.
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Rebels had 10 extra scoring shots but they were too wasteful in the 13-7-85 to 10-20-80 victory Giants.
It’s the first time Giants have won three consecutive matches since joining Central West AFL’s senior competition in 2016.
Giants coach Mark Kennedy said he was extremely happy with the result, which propels Giants into second.
“I was expecting a close encounter and I thought it could’ve went either way,” he said.
“The guys really dug deep and I knew we could win it with the team we had.
Charlie O’Neill made his debut for Giants and booted four goals in the win and small forward Aiden Macauley bagged a game high five goals.
It was also a day were some of the older heads also put in solid performances, including the likes of David Manning, Simon Kay and Alex Cuttiford.
Kennedy also praised the performances of Bailey Brien, who got himself a pair of goals, and Mitch Taylor.
With so many solid, individual performances from Giants, Kennedy said it was hard to pick a stand out performer.
“It’s hard to single anyone out because they all gave 100 per cent,” he said.
“We’re now looking forward to being at the top end of the ladder for a change. I know we’ve always been a team that tries its hardest and we’ve put a lot of time and effort into training, sticking to our game plan.
“It’s starting to reap the rewards for us. Next week is going to be a massive challenge for us against Orange next week.”
Rebels co-coach Steve Grundy said too many missed six-pointers proved costly.
“Looking at the scoring shots, when only one third of your scoring shots are goals, it’s always going to make life difficult,” he said.
“There were a few very gettable ones, that if we had scored them it may have been another story but that’s football. We didn’t but the Giants did and they won the game at the end of the day.”
“Looking back at it, we probably didn’t execute as well as we would have liked to and how we normally do.”
Grundy said Giants were worthy winners.
“It was always going to be pretty close,” he said.
“Giants were very good. They took their opportunities and deserved the victory.”
Giants will now welcome Orange Tigers to George Park 1 this Saturday, as the top two sides go head-to-head.
Rebels host Dubbo Demons at George Park 2 on the same day.
BATHURST GIANTS 13-7-85 (Aiden Macauley 5, Charles O’Neill 4, Bailey Brien 2, David Manning, Emmitt Carr-Smith goals) defeated BATHURST BUSHRANGERS REBELS 10-20-80 (Matt Archer 4, Andrew James 2, Troy Robinson 2, Scott Brown, Brian Matheson goals)
