BATHURST Bushangers co-coaches Tim Hunter and Matt Archer led the way up front for their side in Saturday's Central West AFL senior men's derby against the Bathurst Giants as they combined for nine goals in a 78 point victory.
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Saturday's derby belonged to the Bushrangers in every aspect as they locked down the Giants' attack in a 15-14-104 to 4-2-26 win.
Bushrangers kept the Giants without a single point in the first and third quarters and their backs shone bright at George Park 2.
Hunter said he was naturally pleased to put away five goals but said he was no chance of making that happen without the excellent build up play from his squad.
"Our backline has been phenomenal all year. They hold up so well under pressure," he said.
"That gives us a lot of drive and we're able to attack strongly out of the half back line when they're playing so well. That was a really pleasing aspect of the game.
"It was nice personally to get on the end of a few but thing with the forward line is that it's been someone different popping up every week and putting a score on the board. We've got plenty of people getting on the scoreboard."
That defence kept their opponents scoreless in the opening quarter but Giants themselves playing well tolimit the damage to just 17 points.
From there the Bushrangers started to convert on their opportunities as they outscored the Giants nine goals to two over the middle two terms.
Bushrangers ended up more than doubling their winning margin from the opening round clash against their Bathurst rivals.
"We played quite well in the first game but probably only put two really good quarters together. This was probably more of a four quarter effort," Hunter said.
"Even against Orange we had lapses, so the pleasing thing was we put together four quarters of good footy.
"To the Giants' credit they had a lot of new faces there on the weekend and a lot of younger guys who will be better for the run out there."
Cooper Brien kicked home three of the Giants' four goals during the team's tough day at the office.
The experienced Giants squad put up a sturdy fight against the defending premiers but there was no matching a Bushrangers side who were on their game.
Giants captain Shaun Noyen was proud of the effort given the number of new players in the squad.
"We had a couple more debutants turn up this week. Bushies were just a lot better than what we were. It's a learning experience for us to see how much we need to do to be ready for finals," he said.
"Their key players were back and they helped them out a lot. Nathan Swards is an absolute weapon when he's on the field. Having players like that can really lift the team.
"We managed to keep them to less scoring shots towards the end of the game. We picked things up towards the end, we just had to start like that unfortunately. For us it's now back to the fundamentals."