LAST season Beth Durham was one of the best players in the AFL Central West women's competition, but Bathurst Lady Bushrangers coach Brian Matheson believes she's found another gear in 2020.
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It's a big call given Durham ranked third in last season's league best and fairest count, but her performance in Saturday's thrilling 4-4-28 to 4-2-26 win over the Bathurst Giants only strengthened Matheson's belief.
"She was absolutely outstanding, she was the best on ground by a mile. She just took contested grabs all over the ground. I'd hate to count how many marks she would have taken," he said. "It included a really good pack-grab right in the goal square in the last quarter to probably actually seal the win. She was absolutely amazing.
"I definitely believe she is playing better football that what she was last year. I know she was best on ground last year for the rep side, but I just think she is playing much better football."
Durham's efforts were critical in seeing the Lady Bushrangers post their first win over the Bathurst Giants since August 2018.
It was also the first time the Giants had tasted defeat since the 2018 grand final.
As had been the case a fortnight earlier when the Bathurst rivals met in round one, Saturday's game at George Park 2 was close throughout. But while the Giants won that opener by five points thanks to a goal at the death, this time the Lady Bushrangers held on.
"It was a really, really close game of footy and really low scoring. We came out and kicked the first two goals of the game, but they kicked the next two so it was 12-all at quarter-time," Matheson said.
"It got down to our back line late in the game and I thought they were going to do it again, I thought they were going to kick a late winner again, but we ended up getting it up into our forward line again when the game finished.
"So that made my heart a little bit better. The game was played in really good spirit and was close the whole game, it could have gone either way.
"The back line was just superb. Our back line this year has been so impressive, they don't get much of the glory because they don't kick the goals, but they have been outstanding."
While Durham was a standout for the Lady Bushrangers and booted one of their four majors, Mariah Gilchrist was the Bathurst Giants' players player as she built on her own strong start to the season.
There was one sour note to the contest as young Lady Bushies talent Tula Foster copped a head knock then collapsed and suffered a seizure. She was taken to Orange Hospital and is reportedly okay.
