COLERAINE claimed a strong victory over Dartmoor off the back of a big first half, taking it out 9.8 (62) to 4.5 (29), in round 11 of the South West District Football League.

The Maroons built their lead in the first two quarters, and while the Giants managed to match them through the back half of the game, they weren’t able to make inroads into the margin.

Coleraine’s best were Adam Ward, Rhyan Menzel, Liam Kaine, Charles Youngman, Patrick Sinnott and Cody Deutscher, while Jayden Polaski, William Watson, Mark Cowland, Kaleb Bowd, Jay Ropitini and Jake Casey played well for Dartmoor.

Maroons’ coach Ryan McClure said overall his side performed exceedingly well against a good team in wet and windy conditions.

“It was tough conditions for footy, and especially coming up against Dartmoor who love a fierce contest, it was a challenge for us,” McClure said.

“It was great that we were able to move the ball freely in those conditions.”

McClure said the challenge now for his group is to keep themselves as fit as possible as they make a strong push before finals.

“We want to have as many players fresh and in form as possible… our reserves side is performing very well also so there’s a push there for senior guys to not let up.

“We don’t want any bad habits creeping in even if we’re winning games.”

While the Maroons were able to defeat top-two rivals Cavendish at the start of the season, McClure gave props to the Bloods and said it would be a tall order to topple them at this stage of the season.

“They’re the best side in the comp… I guess that puts some pressure on them, but we’re going to need to be at the top of our game if we’re going to have a chance,” he said.

Cavendish and Coleraine now sit a full four games ahead of the pack after their wins over Heathmere and Dartmoor respectively, which sets up what will likely be a mouth-watering top of the table round 15 clash in a few weeks’ time.

Overall, this week’s results have created essentially three strata in the competition as far as the ladder is concerned, as below the top two there are three teams (Heywood, Tyrendarra, Dartmoor) who look set to battle for position.

The bottom three (Branxholme-Wallacedale, Heathmere, Westerns) will struggle to compete for finals contention at this stage, with the Saints requiring an almighty collapse from one of the three teams above them if they’re to be a chance of getting through.

 But chance or not, each and every side will nonetheless fight it out until the siren sounds on the last match of their season.