After a tricky period of injuries and player unavailability, things are more positive in the Demons camp at the moment and Saturday’s convincing 22.14.146 to 7.5.47 victory over the Cowra Blues was a confidence-boosting one.

The win, coupled with Orange’s tight loss to the Bathurst Bushrangers Rebels, saw the Demons move into third ahead of the Tigers on percentages.

“Some things we did really well but there’s still a few things we need to work on. But that’s what training is for,” Bunt said.

“And we still had about 12 or 15 blokes unavailable so there’s still a lot of guys to come back that we’ve got to fit in and some of them are good footballers.”

The Demons win over a battling Blues outfit was set up early, the visitors kicked a whopping eight goals in the first quarter to lead by 44 points.

The lead grew to 63 at the main break and from there is was as good as over, with Cowra struggling again in a season which is yet to yield a win.

Dubbo cruised to a 99-point win but Bunt was disappointed to see some wayward kicking late on.

“We fell away a bit as the game went on but we set it up early and it was a really good start,” he said.

“We moved the ball well and attacked the ball and one of the most pleasing things was to see move the ball wide to the flanks from centre clearances, rather than just booting it forward.”

A big reason for the Demons doing that was the influence of new recruit Christos Karageorgos.

Karageorgos, who last played in Adelaide more than a year ago, has recently moved to Cobar and linked up with the Demons, much to the delight of Bunt.

“He brought that aspect and I don’t think the guys knew how much they were doing it (spreading it wide),” he said.

“It was his first game in 12 months so he was a bit rusty but he offers a lot in the midfield.

“He’s got experience and just that different look at things.”

While Karageorgos caught the eye, Jono Naden was a standout and booted seven goals in the win.

Ben Madigan was another who impressed at the back while Joseph hedger chimed in with two goals.

“He (Naden) is a good target up front and takes a good mark,” Bunt said.

“He missed a few as well so he could have had 10 or more. Brendan Garlett also only kicked one goal and about seven behinds so he could have had a bagful and it could have been bigger.”

The win meant Dubbo got its hands on the Popeye Shield, in memory of Blues veteran Jason 'Popeye' Petty.

The only negative in the match was a serious eye socket injury to Blues veteran Kim Reid, one which saw him taken to hospital at Orange.