SOUTH Launceston faced one of their biggest tests so far this season in NTFA division 1, but proved up to the task after beating Deloraine by 30 points in a top-of-the-table clash at Deloraine on Saturday.
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Scores were tied up at quarter time and a point separated the two combatants at half-time, but the Bulldogs were able to work their way on top in the second half and ran out winners 10.14 (74) to 6.8 (44).
Aaron Viney and Cody Linger kicked two goals each for South, while Deloraine had six single goalkickers in a game that was a tight, hard-fought struggle all day.
"It was a really good, old-fashioned, tough game of football today," Bulldogs coach Viney said.
"They jumped us early and kicked the first couple of goals and got us on the hop a bit.
"We had to work hard to work our way back into the game of footy and in the second half we made a few changes and sort of got our run going a bit and put Kalem Baker behind the pin and he was really good for us and we got a lot of drive out of the backline and started to convert our shots on goal."
The Bulldogs finished off the better of the two sides with 3.4 to two behinds in the final quarter and Viney said their fitness showed out.
"We swung a few blokes around and our fitness showed in the last quarter as we spread from the contest and got a few blokes on the outside and just really took-off.
"Our backline was sensational today - blokes like Steven Mayne came back in and was great, Dave Patten was really solid at centre half-back and a few lesser lights really stood up.
"Young ruckman Eli Wells took some good grabs around the ground and battled hard all day and Dylan Morgan came up from the reserves last week and had a really good game for us as well."
Matthew Viney came off with a tight calf but apart from that Viney said the Bulldogs emerged unscathed as they prepare for Bracknell next week at Youngtown.
"We will get Luke McCarty and Jake Laskey back from the state under-23s next week and maybe Jordan Tepper but Shane Wager and Darren Crawford will still be away," Viney said.
"This was a game we had been looking forward to for a few weeks after being a bit rocky over the past month with a couple of byes.
"This was the game we really needed to get us out of a bit of a rut and the boys came to play so that win puts us two games plus percentage clear on top and was what we had really been looking for."