THE Dubbo Demons have confirmed themselves a place in the semi finals of the Central West AFL competition after a convincing win over the Young Saints at South Dubbo Oval on Saturday.
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There was plenty riding on the match with the winner guaranteed fourth spot while the loser would finish the season with the wooden spoon but Dubbo showed no sign of nerves as they cruised to a 17.9 (111) to 7.6 (48) win.
With a finals spot already sealed before this weekend's final round match with competition favourites Orange Tigers, Dubbo coach Mick Daly admitted there was a feeling of relief in his squad.
"It feels pretty good, at the start of the year the goal is to be in the finals, even in a five team competition, you don't want to be that fifth team," he said.
"I'm pretty happy about it and the boys are too."
Terry Lyons was the star on Saturday, booting nine goals up front and after a season constantly affected by player availability, Daly said the whole squad benefits when a player like Lyons runs out onto the field.
"He's a good target up forward, the boys get a bit more confidence when he's up front, he goes hard at the footy and he's good for the younger players to watch too," he said.
Sam Whalan used his pace around the field to great effect and finished with three goals while Kim Woodman and Sean Champion impressed with their work in the middle of the park.
Dubbo had beaten the Saints twice this season while Young were victorious when the two sides met back in round seven but there was little doubt about Saturday's result and Daly was most impressed with his side's ability to go on with the job and rack up a big score.
"Especially in wet games you don't expect massive wins, the rain can end the scoring a bit but to win by that much in the wet is a good thing, the skills were good too and that's something we've really been working on," he said.
While the Demons will be without Whalan and fellow speedster Clint Hardwick this week they do welcome back Jerryn Biles and Dean Gould, with teenager Gould expected to have a real impact in defence.
The youngster cleaned up at the under-18s presentation night last season and his fitted in seamlessly with his senior teammates in 2014 and Daly is hoping a near-full squad will be able to push Orange.
"We played Orange off a bye a couple of times and it can be hard to get up and about after a week off so hopefully coming off a win will do us good," he said.
"History would say Orange will give us a touch up but hopefully we can provide some pressure, we want to be competitive."
n DUBBO DEMONS 17.9 (111) (Goals: Terry Lyons 9, Sam Whalan 3, Sean Campion 3, Toby Morgan 1, Dane Cooper 1) defeated YOUNG SAINTS 7.6 (48) (Goals: Robert Harrington 4, Joel Griffin 1, Zac Callaghan 1, Brenton Cummins 1)