Frustrating, disappointing, almost surreal.
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Dubbo Demons coach Will Bunt said there was many ways to explain a his side’s drama-filled final round match of the Central West AFL season.
The Demons went into the match against the Bathurst Giants knowing they had to win to be any chance of finishing in fourth spot.
However, they also needed the minor premiership-winning Orange Tigers to defeat the Bathurst Bushrangers Outlaws.
That didn’t happen and with that game played at an earlier time, Bunt and a few other members of the squad knew the Demons’ fate was sealed before their match had started.
Despite that, the Demons came out all guns blazing at South Dubbo Oval and blew the Giants off the park.
Then, when leading 9.10.64 to 4.3.27 at three-quarter time the match was suddenly called off due to lightning around the ground.
On top of that, the Demons had a player sent off during the match while a fan was also ejected from the ground.
“At three-quarter time we went in the sheds just to get out of the rain and then we were told the game was off,” Bunt said.
“It was just a really flat way to end the year, even though we were winning the game.
“We didn’t even sing the team song afterwards. It was just hollow and almost surreal.”
The Demons ultimately finished the year in fifth spot, behind the Outlaws on percentages alone.
Making the season even more frustrating is the four points the Demons had stripped midway through the year for fielding an incorrectly registered player.
The Demons lost the points they scored after a win over Parkes and the result was changed to a 100-0 loss, something which had an effect on the Dubbo side’s final percentage.
“You’d like to think it wouldn’t come down to that because at the end of the day there’s some games we lost which we should have won and that comes down to our inconsistency,” Bunt said.
“But it was just such a tight competition so for it all to come down to an incorrect email is pretty disappointing, especially when you know you’ve won more games than the team above you.”
While the agonising end to the season will take some time to recover from, Bunt was proud of the effort in Saturday’s game and the strides the club has made this year.
Bevan Charlton-White has been a standout this season and the forward produced one of his best performances on Saturday, kicking multiple goals in the first quarter before finishing with seven for the game.
The midfield also produced one of its finest performances as a unit in the win.
With players improving the things developing off the field, Bunt went as far as to say this was one of the better seasons he can remember, despite there being no finals.
“At the start of the year I said to the boys we wanted to work on the culture and that side of things,” Bunt said.
“That’s taken awhile but I think we’ve made some big inroads there and even on Saturday night some of the boys were saying there’s a different feeling around the club. It’s a good feeling.
“There’s a disappointment and some will probably say we’ve under-achieved with what we’ve got, but there’s a lot more positives than negatives.”
One of the off-field positives was the holding of an inaugural Indigenous recognition round.
That occurred on Saturday, with the players wearing shirts designed by Demons female player Trudy Sloane while a celebration of Aboriginal culture was held prior to the men’s match.
“We remembered some people who have been involved with the club, mainly Lorni Hyland,” Bunt said.
“She played a massive role in the club before she passed away and we all got together on Saturday and had the shirts on, it was really good.
“Everyone wants it to be bigger and better next time.”