Hard running out of the defensive fifty and an aggressive attacking midfield were two of many things to like about the Dubbo Demons in the first serious hit out of season 2019.
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The Demons ran out convincing winners of the annual Izac Cornell Memorial Shield against Tumbarumba, scoring a 11-10 -76 to 3-1-25 victory at South Dubbo Oval.
The Demons ran in waves from defence and linked up with a midfield that was as dangerous on the inside as it was on the outside.
The only blight on the game was the Demons' inaccuracy in front of goal and its habit of clogging up the forward line.
The match was the side's first proper contest under new coach Shayne Wilesmith, and he his side still had to work on its use of the ball in forward line before this weekend's season opener at Bathurst.
"That is something that we have yelled and screamed about at training," he said.
"When you start kicking goals everyone gets excited because they all want to be a goal-kicker and we need to drum into our players not to make it like under-six soccer where everyone just follows the ball.
"We want to give our big forwards room to run into, and we want to give them the opportunity to put it through the big sticks."
While there was still plenty to work on, Wilesmith was a happy man overall.
The Demons had a number of new players in action and while Tumbarumba was under strength, the coach was pleased with the performance from his team.
"We were looking for a structure, and I was happy with what we showed tonight," he said.
"We've got a couple of big forwards that can take strong marks, and while teams can defend a lot of the time it will be hard to beat those guys all the time, so that's the way we'd like to play this season," he said.
The Demons boss was also heartened that the Demons had no standout player during the game.
"Individuals get the glory, but a team wins a premiership," he said.
"Over the course of the season we know we will have blokes in and out for various reasons so if we can have players that can play multiple roles like we did tonight, that will make us hard to beat."
The Demons will travel to Bathurst to take on the Bushrangers Rebels in Saturday's opening round of the 2019 Central West AFL season.
