THEY have the belief and as the finals of the AFL Central West season loom, the Bathurst Giants are hoping for the football gods to grant them some favours too.
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On Saturday at George Park 1 the Bathurst Giants posted an upset 14-15-99 to 12-4-76 win over the Dubbo Demons to keep their hopes of a spot in the three-team men's tier one finals alive.
Giants coach Mark Kennedy is aiming for his side to hold onto that spot in the two rounds which remain.
There is the chance that the Orange Tigers, who are one win behind them, could snatch that third spot while there is also an opportunity for the Giants to replace Dubbo in second and host the preliminary final.
"There is a bit of belief around the team now and who knows? Football is a fickle, funny creature and sometime the football gods are with you, sometimes against you. Hopefully this year they might help us," Kennedy said.
"We really want to make the top three, that is our goal. Look it will be a tough road trip if we have to travel to Dubbo and play a final away, so it would be ideal for us to finish top two. We will try our best but I'm not hedging everything on that."
While the experienced Jordan Longmore was a late withdrawal for the Giants on Saturday, Max Martinez was called in to replace him and Oscar Mann lined up for his first game of 2020.
Sam Sloan, playing at full forward, had his best game of the season with four majors, but he was just one of 10 Giants to boot goals.
The Giants were also strong in their defensive 50, with fullback Derryn Clayton helping to shut down the Demons forwards and launch attacking movements.
"Sam Sloan was amazing up front. He kicked four really good goals and took some strong overhead marks," Kennedy said.
"Derryn Clayton had a fantastic game at fullback, like he constantly beat two players to get it out wide to our outside runners."
The Giants began well to hold a nine-point lead at the first change, but it was the second quarter where they really won the match.
They booted five goals three for the term and restricted the Demons to a pair of majors to lead 8-7-55 to 4-1-25 at the long break.
By three-quarter-time the margin had increased to 45 points, but the effort Giants put into building that advantage told in the last period.
The Demons rallied as they booted six goals - Josh Anasis finishing the match with five majors for Dubbo - but in the end the Giants held on.
"We bloody went to sleep in the last quarter so it could have been a lot better. They kicked six goals two to our two in the last quarter, I was like 'Oh my God', my nerves were shot," Kennedy said.
"Our mids did a lot of running in the first three quarters and just absolutely killed it, some of the running and the link-ups out of the back line were really good.
"By the end Jack Goodsell was just tanked, he rucked most of the game and rucked so well. We had to give him a rest in that last quarter and put him on that last 10 minutes and that sort of settled the team and we got across the line.
"We always know if we can manage our player numbers well and try and get our best team on the paddock every weekend, anything can happen for us."
