MILLICENT pulled off its most important victory for the 2018 Western Border football season on Saturday, soundly defeating reigning premiers East Gambier.
Played at the home of the Bulldogs, the Saints were simply too strong around the ground from the first bounce.
Despite a relatively low first-quarter score kicking with the breeze, the signs were there the Saints would be tough to beat.
Millicent kicked just 1.4-10 in the first term, but importantly kept East to just three behinds, in a game that became a stalemate early.
Jesse Fry stood up through the centre for the home side, finding the likes of Matt Willson outside and Mark Rumbelow pushing up the ground.
But down back the likes of Craig Gysbers and Dylan Tinknell were working hard to repel any attacks.
Luke Thomson was given the big job of covering Matt Duldig, but the latter was showing some early signs of a bag of goals, with solid leads, which in the end resulted in a free kick for the first major of the day.
In the second term the Saints kicked on, with two major scores to one, despite battling conditions that clearly favoured the northern end of the ground.
But it was Giancarlo Cooper who gave the Bulldogs some hope, with a free kick in front of goals for a major score and the lead.
That was short-lived, as the Saints hit back through Joe Walker.
Duldig had another couple of chances to hurt the Bulldogs, but was offline and the Saints had to settle for an 11-point lead at the long break.
At that stage the Bulldogs were far from out of the game, but would need to fight hard after the long break heading into the wind.
The breeze – and the power of the Saints – were simply too much in the third term, with the home side only able to add two straight goals to the tally, while the visitors managed to find four goals and three behinds.
The Saints used the wind to create plenty of options up forward, with a Reece Duncan dribble goal off the side of his boot typical of how the day was panning out for the luck-less Bulldogs.
East pushed hard with a goal against the run of play, but the Saints responded.
Matt Scanlon had returned to the fold this week and managed a set shot for a major, but again Duldig hurt the Bulldogs, with a mark off a high pass inside from Will Fleming and a goal the result.
But heading into the final stanza, the Bulldogs were not out of the contest, trailing by 26 points and with the advantage of a stiff breeze.
However, it did not take long for Duldig to be back in the action, with a chip over the top to Sam Willis who made easy work of the goal.
Then as the Saints once more streamed forward through Callan Hobbs, Willis found the ball on the deck and soccered true to sink any hopes the Bulldogs may have held, with a six-goal margin after three minutes of play in the final stanza.
From there the Bulldogs were unable to make any inroads into the lead, going down in the end by 42 points.
For the Saints Tom Hutchesson played his usual influential game around the ground, along with Dylan Bromley and Steve Duldig again with a solid showing down back.
For the Bulldogs, with several players missing from their lineup, the likes of Jack Dawe – who finished with two goals – Jake McKeon and Matt McCallum put up a fight.
For Millicent coach Clint Gallio it was a welcome result.
“It is a massive confidence booster for us,” he said.
“We did not beat East at all last year and in any league, to knock off the reigning premiers is something special.
“East are a good quality side, so to play the way we did and see it out was good.
“It is early in the season, but the confidence will just make us better.”
Gallio said it was also pleasing to see Matt Duldig claim some strong marks and finish off in front of goals.
“Matt is going to get better – he is still adapting to playing with the team, so I think the second half of the season is where he will kick most of his goals,” he said.
While East would have been expected to bounce back after last round’s poor showing, Gallio said he simply concentrated on what he had in front of him.
“I did not look too much into who they had until I saw the game sheets on the day,” he said.
“We were just worried about what we wanted to do.
“We are trying to be a consistent four-quarter team.
“I think it was the best performance we have put together the last two years.
“It was pleasing to be able to hold them off and run it out.”
While Gallio said it was good to beat the reigning premiers, he accepted there was still plenty more to prove.
“Winning games of footy is what you aim for, but we know we have not proved anything yet,” he said.
“We still have not beat Casterton for a while and they look to be the team to beat.”
It could still be four to six weeks before the Saints can boast a full roster themselves, with Peter Duncan, Mitch Gordon and Gallio himself all still recovering from injury and expected back in soon.
