Gisborne record biggest BFNL win this century in thrashing over Maryborough

The Bulldogs pumped Maryborough by 258 points, 42.21 (273) to 2.3 (15) on a dark day for the Magpies, who also failed to field a reserves side.

It was the biggest win in the BFNL since Castlemaine beat Northern United by 260 points in 1996, with United folding soon after.

The Bulldogs had 16 individual goalkickers, with spearhead Pat McKenna registering eight while youngster Harry Luxmoore nailed seven.

After suffering a 15-point defeat to Sandhurst in round one, the Bulldogs didn't let up all day, kicking nine, 14, 12 and seven goals in each quarter.

Bulldogs coach Rob Waters said it was good to see his side stick to their structures despite the obvious gulf in class.

"It's one of those tough ones for a winning coach to sum up," Waters said.

"Maryborough is working really hard on their list and is being well coached, but you could see early on that it was going to go our way.

"Our focus was on where we were getting our shots from and not straying from what we've done in the pre-season, which we displayed for the majority of the match.

"We did everything we set out to do, and some guys had great individual performances, but as a whole, it was a very pleasing effort from the group."

While Gisborne left the QEO with their heads held high last Saturday, there were still areas to improve upon.

Waters was pleased his side began rectifying some of those issues against the Magpies.

"We got beaten on the outside against Sandhurst, so today, we really focused on flicking it out quicker and being better in our spread from stoppage, which I think we did reasonably well against a decent midfield.

"We were poor in those areas last week, so we wanted to get those things right first and foremost, and the scoreboard just took care of itself."

The Bulldogs will face a much sterner test next Saturday against South Bendigo at Harry Trott Oval.