BONNIE Doon issued a statement to the league they were premiership contenders after knocking off Tarrawingee 45-43 at the Kennell.

Quick ball movement from the Bombers exposed Tarrawingee’s defence early, and shooting pair Portia Keatch and Amy Starzer took advantage, giving the visitors a three-goal lead by the first break before Tarrawingee tightened their defensive structure and prevented the Bombers’ accelerated play.

The Bulldogs fought back hard but couldn’t break the margin down, with the rest of the match essentially going goal for goal.

Bombers coach Michelle Tanner said it was her side’s quick start which paved the way for the win.

“I think we just got a really good start, and that helped us because the rest of the quarters were basically even, we were just lucky we had that good start,” she said.

“I think we had really good ball movement in the first quarter, we were able to move it quickly, that probably played to our advantage.

“In the rest of the game, Tarra played a bit of a zone and we couldn’t get through it, and they slowed us up a bit.

“It was goal for goal – I think we dropped the last (quarter) by a goal, but the second and third were even quarters.

“It was good to get over the line.”

Coincidentally, shooters from both teams performed identically on the stat sheet, with Bonnie Doon’s Portia Keatch and Tarrawingee’s Kaylee Allan both shooting 32 goals at 84.21 per cent accuracy for the match.

The win maintains Bonnie Doon’s position in the top four, behind Greta, Milawa and Whorouly.

Elsewhere, Milawa recorded the highest score of the A grade season to date, pushing aside the Hawks by 69 goals, 86-17.

A 20-goal lead after the first quarter was blown out to 33 by the long break, with Milawa controlling the flow of play across the court.

Jordan Leslie was dominant in goal attack, shooting 65 goals at 83.33 per cent accuracy for the match.

Greta took a similarly one-sided win, outperforming Benalla All Blacks 83-26.

Up at Pioneer Park, Bright took their second win in as many weeks, defeating Goorambat 49-41.

“It was a pretty tough contest coming up against Goorambat, however, we were able to get over the line with our connections across the court, strong defence and goal conversion,” co-coach Kate Buckley said.

“Defence worked well together with a new combination Molly Whitty and Ash Farmer, who were able to shut down the ring and made it difficult for Goorambat to get a clean pass into the ring.

“Midcourters put the pressure on the entire way down the court, creating some opportunities for turnovers, as well as their ability to move the ball into attack and into our own goal ring seamlessly.”

Whorouly were handed their first loss of the year at the hands of King Valley, defeated at home 34-41.