MAY 5 2019 - BENDIGO ADVERTISER
Mt Pleasant coach Darren Walsh.
Mt Pleasant defeated North Bendigo for the first time since 2008 to give coach Darren Walsh his best win at the club.
The Blues had lost their previous 20 encounters with the HDFNL power by an average margin of 10 goals,
Their last five matches had resulted in North Bendigo posting cricket scores in wins of 126, 165, 180, 137 and 108 points.
It was a different story on Saturday as Mounts basically led from start to finish to win 14.11 (95) to 11.15 (81).
"We're playing with substance now whereas last year we were going into games hoping we'd match it with good teams,'' Walsh said.
"Now we have confidence in what we're doing. I know North Bendigo had Brady Herdman out, but we were missing Dale Young and Cam Moore down back.
"It was a big win for the club...it's an eight point game when you can beat one of the top three sides."
The Bulldogs led by 26 points at the final change, but had to withstand a late rally from the Bulldogs, who got within two goals of the home side at one stage.
"North have been such a good side for so long that I knew they would come at us because good teams hate to lose,'' Walsh said.
"They outplayed us in the last quarter, so we'll take some learnings out of that.
"We've improved, but how much we've improved we won't know until probably the halfway mark of the season."
Ben Weightman is in a rich vein of form form for the Blues.
The midfielder/forward kicked five goals to be his side's best player.
Joseph Whiting, Mitch Bennett and Joe Connelly also performed strongly for Mounts.
The Bulldogs' injury curse continued, with Jordan Ford (groin), Joel Helman (shoulder) and Brodie Thomson (hamstring) injured in the first 20 minutes before Billy Robertson (groin) got hurt early in the third term.
Ford stayed on the ground as a deep forward, but struggled to move.
"We didn't have a bench from early in the third quarter onwards, so to come back in the last quarter was pleasing,'' North Bendigo coach Matt Dillon said.
"The disappointing thing was that, with a few players out, we needed some players to stand up and they did it in the last quarter when the game was done, but not early in the game."
The Bulldogs have the next two weeks off through a general bye and inter-league bye.
"The two-week break couldn't come at a better time for us,'' Dillon said.
