Bathurst Bushrangers defeat Giants in second AFL Central West senior men's derby of season

Bushrangers continued to pull away gradually from the Giants with every quarter that went by, before really turning up the heat on their opponents in a big final quarter to win 17-17-119 to 8-7-55 at George Park 1.

Bushies made it four wins in a row to start the season, with another big performance from Nathan Smith (seven goals) leading the way for his side.

Co-coach Tim Hunter said the Giants made his Bushrangers work hard for their success.

"We were pretty happy with our performance. We've got plenty we can take away from it as well, because it was a pretty tight tussle for a lot of that game," he said.

"At the end of the day we probably just had the game on our terms for that extra bit longer. They definitely had patches where they were dominant as well.

"They had a few handy ins and it was super competitive.

"We had opportunities but they'd dominate periods of the game as well. I know the score isn't super reflective of how much of a tussle it was. We scored a few late that helped blow it out a bit."

Bushrangers won the first derby of the season in a 124-point blowout but the return of several Giants players, and two weeks of further development, helped make Saturday's game a more competitive affair.

The Bushies carried a 46 point lead into the fourth quarter of the latest contest but that's when the team put the foot down.

Hunter said a satisfying element of the Bushrangers playstyle this season has been the team's ability to play out four quarters.

"We're really happy with how we're running games out at the moment. A lot of the boys have put in a big pre-season and I think that, combined with use of rotations from the bench, are helping us run games out," he said.

"That's been a real positive for us. There's still things we can work on, and there were a couple of patches where the Giants put on a couple of quick goals, but our overall effort it holding us in good stead at the moment.

"The positive thing was that once they had scored a couple we were able to sort ourselves out and get the game back on our terms. Moving forward that will be our focus."

Smith took his season goal tally to 22 in the space of four games, with 15 of those coming in the two matches against the Giants

"Nathan had another really great game and they did a best on ground medal for the Indigenous game, and he won that. He's been a strong focal point for us," Hunter said.

"Kolby McMahon's been rucking for us and doing a fantastic job. Our backline's holding up great as well thanks to guys like Tommy Maher and Alex Davies. They're doing a great job back there.

"It was really great day put together by the Giants and we were stoked to be involved in the Indigenous day ceremonies. It was awesome to do all those presentations together."

Bushrangers' lead at the top of the table remains at eight points, with Dubbo Demons in second.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: