BEFORE the opening bounce in Saturday's Central West AFL match against the Dubbo Demons, Bathurst Giants coach Mark Kennedy was nervous.
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The Demons - a team which historically has had issues when travelling - had a squad of 24 for the clash at George Park 1.
On top of that, the Demons had beaten the Giants earlier in the season at South Dubbo Oval and headed into the contest on the back of two consecutive wins.
So that the Giants managed to post a 13-13-91 to 6-3-39 victory had Kennedy elated as the full-time siren sounded.
"To be honest we had a few out and I was a bit nervous about this game," the coach admitted.
"We went over there and we knew it was going to be tough over there. But then when they named 24 to play us, I thought 'Gee they are really serious about this year if they are bringing 24 over to play us.'
"They turned up early and got ready and you could see they were focused and I was thinking it was going to be a competitive game for us. But the guys, they just dug deep and played really well and stuck to the structures we put in place."
The opening quarter was tightly contested, the Giants managing to open up a 10-point lead as they restricted the Demons to a single major from their 10 entries inside 50.
While the hosts were not as accurate as they would have liked in the second term as they again had the better of the inside 50s - 15 entries compared to Dubbo's seven - by the long break the Giants led 5-13-43 to 4-1-25.
From there they went on with the job to retain third place and open up a four-point buffer over the Demons on the ladder.
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Though the Giants' kicking efficiency was down on their season average - 58 percent compared to 63 - the number of pressure acts from the Bathurst side was an impressive 216 across the four quarters.
The Giants also made 41 tackles.
Liam Clarke was solid in a more defensive role on the half forward line, Emmitt Carr-Smith was a good target at centre-half-forward while Kennedy said Bailey Brien "just carved it up out on the wing".
"Just our centre clearances helped us ... our accuracy was a bit down in front of goal and as the stats show [21 percent scoring efficiency], we need to make more of our forward 50 entries," Kennedy said.
"That was possibly due to the physical Dubbo defence, the forward line being very crowded at times and crumbers not always front and square. But this was a bit better later in the game.
"We played an extra man back, so we were outnumbered in the forwards, but Sam Sloan and Emmitt Carr-Smith just led up. That's one of the better games I've seen Emmitt play for awhile, he presented well and took some good marks."
