WHEN arriving at George Park 1 on Saturday afternoon, the Dubbo Demons were intent on winning their first Central West AFL minor semi-final in 10 years.
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But that intent was not enough and when leaving the ground it was after a heavy 16-13-109 to 5-5-35 loss to the Bathurst Giants.
The Demons did try hard - they held the Giants scoreless for the first 11 minutes of the second quarter and won 48 percent of the clearances for the match - but in the end they were outclassed by the Bathurst outfit.
"We kept the effort up, but they were just too good. They wanted it more than us," Demons captain Ben Madigan said.
"Bevan Charlton-White did well, he's a gun of a player. He kept us in it there in the second quarter, but I think the rest of us just had a down day.
"They were too good at the ball."
Though the Demons won one more game this season than in 2018 - seven during the regular season to qualify for the finals in fourth - Madigan knows it is still a work in progress.
"It's an improvement, we've got a good bunch of lads, we've just got to keep getting the same team on the park. If we can do that, hopefully we can go one better next year," he said.
While the Demons are now looking at 2020, the Giants are completely focused on a first premiership for the club this season.
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Giants coach Mark Kennedy put the rest of the competition on notice after the win.
"I think that was one of the strongest sides we've had on the paddock all year, so hopefully we put that in the back of the minds now of Orange and Bushrangers and let them know we're coming," Kennedy said.
"I was really happy with the way the guys played, they didn't panic. If you take it quarter by quarter, they won that second quarter, but we gathered that back in said that we've got to reset a little bit and go back to what we do really well.
"We got the ascendancy out of the centre, kicked a couple of goals in that third quarter and just ran away with it from there.
"It was really pleasing we stuck to the game plan, we worked really hard and came away with a really good result going into the preliminary final."
The Giants made a strong start to the match as they booted five majors in the space of 15 minutes, including a thumping effort from the top of the 50 metre arc from Emmitt Carr-Smith.
It took the Demons until the final minute of the term - after the Giants had put an attempted clearing kick out of bounds on the full - to post their first major via Charlton-White.
That made it 6-3-39 to 1-2-8 at the first change and it lifted the Demons.
Dubbo clawed back the Giants' lead to 18 points as they controlled the clearances early in the second period and through the likes of Michael Daly, denied the hosts quality possession inside their attacking 50.
But momentum then swung again and the Giants went no to dominate the second half.
The Giants will meet either Bushrangers Rebels or Orange Tigers in the preliminary final.
- BATHURST GIANTS 16-13-109 (Paul Jenkins 4, Sam Sloan 3, Aiden Macauley 3, Reilly Mitchell 2, Bailey Brien 2, Emmitt Carr-Smith, Nic Broes) defeated DUBBO DEMONS 5-5-35 (Bevan Charlton-White 2, Tom Budd, Cameron Hellinga, Nathan Carroll)
