The Ararat Rats were outclassed by the Horsham Demons in their round two Wimmera Football League clash, going down by 94 points at Alexandra Oval on Sunday.
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The visitors jumped out of the blocks despite having played their previous match only five days earlier, putting six goals on the board in the first term.
The home team managed two goals in the opening quarter and went into the first break down by 28 points.
Demons’ midfielders continued their impressive start in the second term, getting a hold of the ball from the middle and giving their forwards plenty of chances.
Ararat struggled to slow the game down and only had one goal in the second quarter while conceding six to make a victory at home unlikely.
The second half started similar to how the first half ended with the Demons dominating play.
The home team struggled to prevent the Demons from scoring throughout the quarter with the visitors outscoring the Rats 30 points to seven to take a 83-point advantage into the final term.
The visitors again dominated the term and finished comfortable winners, as the Rats managed two goals in the last term to lessen the margin.
The Rats finished 6.3.39 to 19.19.133 losers on their home ground.
Rats coach Terry Keilar said there were some positives to take out of the loss.
“We were pretty happy with the percentage of possessions we had,” he said. “We made some changes in the second half and to the boys credit, they improved.
“Impressed with their effort in the second half and got a good response, structured up better in the back line. It was good to see some reward for that.”
The Demons’ workrate and structures impressed onlookers and the Rats coaches.
Keilar said they knew the Demons would be strong but needed to focus on their own game.
“They were impressive in terms of the way they moved the ball,” he said. “But we just wanted to stick to our game plan and move the ball really quickly through the middle to give our forwards a chance.
“We wanted to take some risks taking the ball through the middle of the ground but it did not quite pay off at times.
“We are getting the ball really well to centre half-forward, just not getting it deep into the forward 50 which is making it hard for our key forwards.”