IT is still hard to come to terms with calling a victory by the reigning premiers an upset, but that is how the 2018 Western Border football season has panned out.
East Gambier may have claimed the flag last year, but this season has been anything but plain sailing.
After 12 rounds of football they sit in fourth place on the ladder, just six points clear of 2017 runner-up North Gambier.
That one sentence describes how the season has gone, apart from 2017 wooden-spooners West Gambier sitting solid in third place.
This season has been a game-changer and the Bulldogs have been chasing their tails since the start of the year.
However, you would not have known that on Saturday, as they instilled the first defeat for the year on Casterton Sandford – and down at Island Park to boot.
Historically the Cats are hard to knock off on their home deck, but had no answer for the hungry Dogs on Saturday.
The Bulldogs were off to a solid start, leading by a small five-point margin after one quarter of football.
But the second term saw the reigning champions break the game apart, thanks in no small part to the work of Mark Rumbelow.
It was almost a breakout game for the high-flying forward, who has been around the mark this season, but often off line.
But there was no problem with his accuracy on Saturday as he kicked six straight goals for the match, all in the first half.
That gave the Bulldogs an advantage at the long break they were able to carry forward and hold the Cats at bay.
So far this season Rumbelow’s best was three goals against North Gambier back in Round 1, which he equalled in Round 11, also against the Tigers.
In another game against North he managed two goals, as he did in Round 3 against South Gambier.
But apart from that his numbers have been minimal, if any, although he has threatened to score a bag on a couple of occasions.
His big marks are spectacular to watch, but finishing off has certainly been an issue.
Of course that changed this week, which would have been refreshing to the Bulldogs faithful, especially against the high-flying Cats.
For his efforts Rumbelow is a worthy winner of the Sportspower Player-of-the-Year weekly honours.
