AFTER three consecutive losses, reigning premiers Nyah-Nyah West United returned to form with a 127-point thrashing of Balranald on Saturday afternoon.
The Demons were unstoppable after half-time, kicking 17 of the last 19 goals of the game to run out comfortable 25.14 (164) to 5.7 (37) winners.
The win was NNW United’s first since their round 1 victory over Swan Hill, with the Demons putting themselves firmly back in the finals race, just a game behind fifth placed Koondrook-Barham.
While it was an impressive performance from the reigning premiers, it proved to not only be a costly one on the scoreboard for Balranald, but also on the injury front, with the Roos losing Ben Fuller (pectoral), Roarke Smith (hamstring) and Jarryd Stead before half time.
Although the results over the first month of the season hadn’t been going his team’s way, NNW United co-coach Corey Daniels said they never lost faith in their ability to compete.
“There’s always been the belief that we’re a good team, that hasn’t changed over the first few weeks,” Daniels said.
“We just haven’t had the results that we probably wanted to start the season and we played some pretty good teams too.
“It was nice to get a win and hit the scoreboard, that’s probably being our big focus is getting momentum by actually hitting the scoreboard, which we haven’t been able to do when we have had momentum in games.
“The boys played well, we were able to get them on the spread and we kicked the footy a lot better yesterday than we have over recent weeks, which made a difference and we we’re able to open the ground up which suited us.
“That said, Balranald were really good in the first half but dropped away after half-time, but they were still competitive and really strong around the ball all the way through.”
It was the Demons famous run and spread which did the bulk of the damage after the main break, with Ethan Saville, Brayden Bigham and Max Thompson all influential with their ability to break the lines.
Nick O’Neill was the main beneficiary in the second half, with the premiership co-coach booting six goals – all of which came in the second half.
O’Neill was also a key contributor in the first half for the home side, providing plenty of run and drive off half back, along with Jaydyn Stirling and Joel Walsh as the Demons repelled many of the Roos forward entries.
O’Neill was shifted forward after the main break, with Charlie Boulton also getting on the end of several forward entries to finish the afternoon with five goals of his own.
But it was the Demons defence that ultimately set up the win, with Stirling, Walsh and Alex Erlandson, who started at full back on Ben Fuller that set up the win for the Demons, after restricting Balranald to just three goals in the first half when the match was at its hottest.
Balranald co-coach Jack Salau was philosophical after the match, with the Roos ultimately running out of gas with just one fit player on the bench in the second half.
“We showed plenty of good patches of footy, but in the end that’s all they were,” Salau said.
“We couldn’t sustain prolonged periods of strong footy unfortunately, which allowed them (NNW United) the opportunity to get ahead and create a lot of momentum.
“Losing (Ben) Fuller, (Jarryd) Stead and (Roarke) Smith by half-time obviously made it hard to run out the game with limited rotations as well.”
Cody Henness was among Balranald’s better players, along with Tanner Coulthard, Lachlan Bence and Jack Helgeland, with Salau and Ryan Middlebrook providing the Roos with plenty of run and carry from defence in the first half.
NNW United will be aiming to return to the top five when they play Tyntynder at the Alan Garden Reserve this weekend, while Balranald will host the Mallee Eagles in another big test for the Roos.
SCORES
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final Score |
| NNW United | 4.3 | 8.6 | 17.10 | 25.14 | 164 |
| Balranald | 2.0 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 5.7 | 37 |
VOTES
3 – Nick O’Neill (NNW United)
2 – Jaydyn Stirling (NNW United)
1 – Joel Walsh (NNW United)
