Travelling to Kyabram Recreation Reserve, the Saints were on the back foot from the start, with a ruthless Bombers outfit delivering a mammoth 24.16 (160) to 8.7 (55) defeat.
Coach Jarrad Waite acknowledged it had been a rough start to the season for his troops, who have faced finals fancies Shepparton Swans, Shepparton and Kyabram in the opening three rounds, although is enthused by some positives shown by his youthful brigade.
“Obviously not a great start for the season for the boys overall, we've played some pretty quality opposition, but we've got a really young developing group which is showing some good signs,” he said.
“Obviously on Friday we let Kyabram probably get off to a good start, defensively we probably weren't at our best in the first quarter.
“They were able to kick a few easy goals, which we tried to rectify in the second quarter, and I thought the second quarter we held up pretty strong, we defended much better, but then the last five minutes of that quarter, I think they kicked four goals in the last five minutes, which obviously put us in a vulnerable position.”
The Bombers piled on 14.6 to 2.4 from Benalla in the opening half to race out to a 74-point lead by half-time, however, the Saints regrouped at the break and managed to deliver a stirring third term.
Slamming through six goals while keeping the home side to four, the Saints won the third term and pegged the margin back by two goals, which given how dominant Kyabram was in the first half, is a huge turnaround.
“The third quarter, I thought we came out and defended really, really well, it's probably the best quarter we've had in the last two years,” Waite said.
“I think we ended up winning the quarter six goals to (four), I believe, and defended the way that we've been training to defend. It was probably our best ground defence obviously for the year, but even probably the last couple of years.
“Unfortunately, yeah, the last quarter, they're able to bank on (six) goals, which is pretty disappointing as we were trying to get some momentum from that third quarter and just claw our way back a little bit, but it wasn't to be.
“There's a few things that we're trying to work on at the moment, we're just working on the fundamentals and how we want to play as a team and how we want to move the football.”
While being outscored six goals to zero in the final term was a poor finish after a brilliant third term, Waite said moments such as that third quarter are exactly what his side need to see as they continue to improve.
“I can always see the potential, but I think it's good for the boys to see what we're trying to implement come to fruition sometimes,” he said.
“Obviously we would like to maintain that for a longer period of the game, but, you know, at the moment, little wins here and there are really vital for the group and our momentum forward throughout the rest of the year.
“As I've been saying to the boys, we're trying to implement these fundamentals so later on during the year we will get better at playing a team structured defence and the way we want to move the ball at certain times of games.
“It's really pleasing to see, but obviously being the coach I would like to see it happen for more than just a quarter or a quarter and a half.”
Recruit Nathan Wright kicked another three goals in the loss to bring his tally to 11 for the year, with the ability for both he and the team to hit the scoreboard despite the sizeable losses another positive for Waite.
"Obviously with 'Wrighty', we were in desperate need of a key forward and we were able to get him pretty early on, towards the end of last year, which was really good,” he said.
“He's an athletic tall forward that can move around, he's been able to hit the scoreboard, and that's one positive, that even the last few weeks we've still been able to get a decent score on the board, which we probably haven't been able to do previously.”
Nick Warnock continued an impressive run of form as Benalla’s best, while young gun Ryley Ely joined him alongside Nick Mellington (two goals), Chris Welsh (one goal) and Sam Begley.
The fixture doesn’t get any easier for the Saints, with three-time reigning premier Echuca up next this weekend at Benalla Showgrounds, although there are a few key areas in which they will be looking to improve upon from the weekend.
“(Echuca is) obviously a very quality team, and have been for a number of years, so we know sort of how they're going to play,” Waite said.
“(But we will focus on) just our ability to shut down their ball movement, and when we've got the ball in our hands, how we go forward and get some good entries inside 50.”
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