Gulls frozen out by relentless Redlegs
It's often said there are no guarantees in footy. For Warragul, an away trip to face ninth-placed Bairnsdale would have been, on paper, a golden opportunity to claim their second win of the season.
Instead, like the Big Freeze sliders prior to the match, the Gulls soon found themselves out in the cold, as the Redlegs ran riot after quarter time to enjoy a big win, the final score being 15.14 (104) to 8.13 (61).
The usual suspects for Warragul played well, with Nicholas Mulqueen and Nick Graham finding plenty of the ball through the middle, while Jed Lamb once again top scored for the Gulls with four goals despite some issues with inaccuracy.
Despite these solid performances, Bairnsdale had a much greater spread of contributors as most of their players played a role.
John Gooch's return to the side proved a boon as he kicked four goals, while Brayden McCarrey was lively with four of his own.
The standout, however, was undoubtedly Redlegs midfielder Shane McDonald. Playing his first match for the year, McDonald was everywhere, collecting 33 disposals and kicking two goals to claim best on ground honours.
The Gulls tried to work hard at the contest, but were consistently overwhelmed by the overlap run Bairnsdale were able to generate through the middle.
Warragul's best footy is often when they apply extreme pressure on other teams, but the Redlegs players always seemed to have a runner on the outside when they were confronted by a Warragul tackler.
This wasn't the case in the first quarter though, as the Gulls started in extremely positive fashion. They were sticking their tackles, forcing Bairnsdale into errors and locking the ball inside 50.
Warragul kicked the first two goals of the game through Lamb and Michael Lynn, and were controversially denied a third when a Lamb set shot was called a behind despite the Gulls players' protests.
They could have kicked more given the sheer number of inside 50s they had, but were guilty of bombing it high and long to nobody in particular on more than one occasion.
A late tripping free gave Bairnsdale their first goal, but at quarter time the Gulls appeared switched on.
At quarter time, fill-in coach Nick Graham lauded his side's efforts, but warned them they couldn't switch off and concede a bag of goals in the second term to waste it.
Unfortunately, this was exactly what they did.
Bairnsdale worked their way through the Warragul pressure in the second term, kicking six goals to none in a rush to effectively end the contest by half time.
The Gulls certainly didn't help themselves at times, conceding two of those six goals through 50 metre penalties that took the Redlegs to the goal square.
At the other end their scoring issues also continued. While Lamb was constantly threatening, his radar was a little off for the day, missing some chances to keep Warragul in it, while very few of his teammates looked like easing the burden he carried.
Of the 69 goals Warragul has collectively kicked this year, Lamb has kicked 32 of them, showing just how dependent they are at times for him to fire if they want to keep up with other sides.
The Redlegs run and carry opened up Warragul countless times, and they began to dominate the clearance game which allowed them to maintain control of the ball.
On the other hand, when Warragul did get their hands on the footy, they very rarely had options running past, forcing them to boot it with little direction.
This, coupled with a sizeable wind blowing across the ground, meant their kicking more often than not failed to find a target, and ended up out of bounds on the full on more than one occasion.
The highlight of the day for the Gulls came in the third quarter when they finally found their third goal through Graham, who burst through a pack and kicked a goal off the outside of his boot from 40 metres.
By that point however Bairnsdale were in cruise control. Though Warragul found some scoring potency in the last quarter thanks to some tired legs allowing the game to open up, it mattered little as they sunk to their seventh loss of the season.
Thanks to the result, Warragul has now slid to ninth, while Bairnsdale has taken their spot in eighth and will look to cause some headaches for the higher ranked teams in the second half of the season.
For Warragul, one win and one draw at the halfway mark of the year gives them plenty to try and improve on moving forward as they turn their focus to next week's match against a Moe side in desperate need of a win.
Nicholas Mulqueen, Nicholas Graham, James Davidson, Jake Hughes and Brad Hefford were named as Warragul's best players.
For Bairnsdale, Shane McDonald, Austin Hodge, Josh Wykes, Sam Gilbert, Logan Austin and Brayden McCarrey were all outstanding.