Weekly Advertiser | Ararat’s senior footballers made a statement in a special Wimmera Football Netball League Good Friday fixture, defeating Stawell by 96 points in front of a large home crowd at Alexandra Oval.

The two-time reigning premier Rats lost to the Warriors in their first meeting last season, and while early indications of another upset were apparent on Friday, Ararat quickly righted the ship.

The home side trailed by 17 points at quarter time, with Warrior Paul Summers getting on the end of a pinpoint pass from Cody Driscoll to open the scoring and following up with a long-range bomb from outside 50 metres only minutes later.

With Michael Selsby and Koby Stewart prominent in the midfield and the Warriors’ backline competing hard to nullify Ararat’s forward entries, the home crowd was kept quiet early.

But the match flipped on its head in the second term, with Ararat’s classy midfield, led by the likes of Sonny Kettle, Ben Taylor and ruckman Cody Lindsay, began to assert itself.

After being on the wrong end of a four-goals-to-one opening term, the Rats restricted Stawell to one goal in the second while booting six of their own, with key forward Tom Williamson kicking four in the quarter.

It was the start of a big day out for Williamson, who finished with 10 majors and gave opponent Josh Fowkes fits with a series of contested marks, marks on the lead and goals from general play.

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