COLLINGULLIE-Glenfield Park’s charge towards finals gained further momentum as the Demons claimed their biggest scalp yet – Griffith – on Saturday.
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The two-time reigning premiers produced another dominant display as the ran rings around the third-placed Swans, winning 13.10 (88) to 6.3 (39) at Crossroads Oval.
The win over a top-five team is exactly what the Demons needed as they look to replace Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong in fifth spot.
Like last week against Coolamon, Collingullie-GP were on from the opening minute and put Griffith on the back foot with five goals to one in the opening term.
Griffith battled hard to stay in the game but went into half-time six goals down, and it only got worse in the third quarter as they were held scoreless and the Demons stretched the margin to 56 points.
The Swans did win the final term to add some respectability to the scoreline but the loss drops them to fourth, with a tough run home.
With Demons coach Brett Lenon sick, assistants Chris Gow and Kal Sykes took over and steered the ship.
Gow rated the performance equal to anything the Demons’ have produced this year.
“It was probably near the best win for the year, I reckon, that along with last week,” Gow said.
“I think it all comes with a bit of stability with the guys we’ve got. The first part of the year we had five, six changes continually each week, whereas the last two weeks I think we’ve had one change each week.
“So we’re starting to get a bit of a group together that we know, this is the group of blokes that are going to do something.”
For Gow, Collingullie’s last two performances have been a long time coming.
“I think we have known that we have got the ability and talent there, it’s just that we haven’t been able to get the personnel out there,” he said.
“We have known, and been pretty confident all year, that we have the guys there able to do a job but it’s just been through injury, unavailability and things like that, that we haven’t been able to pull it together.
“We’ve known we can match it with the best of them, it’s just a matter of keeping winning for the next three weeks to give ourselves a chance.”
The Demons, while still taking it a week at a time, are starting to get a little more confident about grabbing fifth.
“Today was a crunch game, Gow said.
“If we lost that today, looking at the draw, we would have struggled to sneak into fifth spot.
“That keeps us going.”
Matt Klemke and Jayden Klemke were two of many Demons to shine in the win.
Nathan Richards, Ben King and Jordan Iudica tried hard for Griffith.