DRAGONS SET THEIR BAR HIGH

BELL Park co-coach Shane Jack has challenged his team to replicate the form displayed in Saturday’s comfortable win over St Mary’s when it returns from a bye.

Jack believes the Dragons set the standard for the season with the 17-point victory at Hamlyn Park, preaching for his “brave” charges to produce the same effort in crunch matches against Colac and St Joseph’s in weeks to come.

“We had a big pre-season, but we just didn’t know where we were at,” Jack said.

“We played Lara last week and we played well and did everything right, but we wanted to test ourselves against a good side and they (St Mary’s) are a good side.

“Now the boys know that’s what we need to produce every week. We can’t just have a oneoff — every week we need to rock up and produce that effort.”

With the Saints searching for their first victory after being humbled by St Joseph’s in Round 1, the Dragons blew the game wide open with a sixgoal-to-one opening term.

St Mary’s struggled to close the gap, with the margin flattering the 2018 grand finalist after Bell Park took the foot off the pedal in the final quarter, allowing the visitors to kick five unanswered goals.

Jack admitted his side ran out of gas, with ruckman Josh Jokic not sighted after quartertime after going down with a knee injury.

It was a big blow to the Dragons, who are already battling for talls.

“He’s hurt his knee and we’re not sure how bad it is,” Jack said. “It was too bad for him to come back on and he did it in the first 10 minutes. Our back-up ruckman Darby Schilder didn’t play — he hurt his neck last week and went home in an ambulance — so we were down a few big men and we couldn’t afford Jokic to get hurt but he did.

“I don’t think it’s too serious, we were pushing for him to come back on, but in the end it’s their (medical staff) call and we just have to listen to them.

“The bye has come at a good time. ‘Rocky’ (James Rock) went down with a really good corkie and Cooper Jones was cramping, but it was only his second game back and he was cramping last week as well.”

While Luke Smith bagged a game-high five goals for the Dragons, making it 12 in the opening fortnight, Jack lauded his stingy defence.

“I thought our backline was really good,” Jack said.

“Steve Bensted and ‘Buca’ (Kristian Bucovaz) were both undersized but they did such a good job and Charlie Farrell was solid for us.

“Ben Lloyd and ‘ Roundsy’ (Luke Rounds) did really well, so I was pleased with our backline.

“Luke Smith got on the end of a few up forward and he’s exciting, and our midfield group, I thought ‘Patto’ (Lachlan Patten), our new captain, was in and under and Harry Smith was good as an undersized ruckman.

“There was probably a few that I missed, but it was just a good team effort.”

Bell Park will now rest up before travelling down the Princes Highway to take on another unbeaten side in Colac.

“We’ve got Colac away and Joeys here, so our first month of footy is pretty tough, but it gives me a good read of where we’re at,” Jack said.

“It was another challenge today (Saturday), but that’s the benchmark for the rest of the season. It’s a win against a good team, but we’ve got another 16 rounds to go.”