In what is undoubtedly the longest road trip and most daunting task in Ovens and King netball, Bright came perilously close to causing a major boilover against Bonnie Doon on Saturday, eventually going down 41-47.

On paper, the Bombers were heavily favoured to win comfortably, but Bright had other ideas and came out with a point to prove, highlighted by their hot start and four-goal lead at the first break.

Bright then held their nerve and the lead at 25-22 at the major break, and with two quarters to go, the visitors were daring to dream.

But the more experienced Bonnie Doon blitzed their opposition with speed and composure to regain the lead by four, then stretched it to six by the end of the match, but not without a huge scare from last year’s finalists.

The inclusions of Molly Whitty and Ash Farmer were pivotal, and both impressed to be in Bright’s best players, along with playing coach Ash Grimes.

Grimes had mixed feelings after the game, but pride was certainly one of them.

“Despite the result I was really proud of the effort from the girls - Bonnie Doon are obviously one of the benchmark sides in the competition, so to go down by only six after the game we played was really encouraging,” Grimes said.

“I thought our first half especially was some of the best netball we’ve produced this season - we moved the ball well, worked hard defensively and really backed ourselves.

“What probably clicked most was our consistency and composure, we stayed in the contest the whole day and even when momentum shifted, the girls kept responding.

“We also had four injuries throughout the game, which made things challenging with rotations and positional changes, but the effort and resilience never dropped.

“Molly coming back into the side definitely gave us some stability and experience down back - her strength and calmness helped settle the group, particularly against a really strong attacking end.”

In other matches from round eight, Benalla All Blacks picked up their third win of the season, knocking off the struggling North Wangaratta 42-31.

In was a fitting celebration for Benalla’s Alara Jones, who played in her 300th A grade game.

Elsewhere, Greta defeated Milawa 42-32, Tarrawingee were too good for King Valley 46-30, and Goorambat defeated Moyhu 37-29.