SWFL men’s: Slick South Bunbury open season with dominant 97-point win over Dunsborough

A slick South Bunbury outfit opened their South West Football League campaign by putting Dunsborough to the sword on Sunday, dominating their season opener by 97 points at Dunsborough Playing Fields.

After a strong summer in which they were strengthened by several recruits — including two-time Hayward Medal winner Simon Moore — the Sharks have been widely tipped to be big improvers in their second season at league level, but the 18.12 (120) to 5.1 (31) result suggests they still have much work to do.

Promisingly for the Tigers, they filled the Leigh Kohlmann-shaped hole in their forward line by spreading the load, with recruits Mitchell Bain, Lachlan Riley (both four goals), Richard Bourne and Blaine Johnson (both two goals) all getting in on the act.

The visitors were all over their opponents right from the opening siren, starting the contest with a nine-goal opening-quarter barrage as the scoreless and shell-shocked Sharks struggled to get their hands on the ball.

Dunsborough coach Daniel Wiseman gave his side some pointed feedback in his quarter-time address but it did not have the desired effect, with Kade Walldrot soccering through his team’s 10th major only seconds into the second term.

Jake Green finally gave the hosts something to smile about when he sneaked out the back to slot their first goal of the game but the Tigers still expanded their advantage to 79 points at the main break.

The Sharks were able to stem the bleeding at the start of the second half and a pair of 50m penalties allowed Paris Murdock to slot their second before Daniel Atkinson quickly followed up for their third.

Both teams had their moments in an increasingly physical second half during which Dunsborough came up with five goals to the Tigers’ six, but the result had well and truly been decided.