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BARWON Heads fought off a minor scare from Portarlington on Saturday to record a thumping 157-point victory, bringing it ever closer to a finals berth.
The Seagulls picked up where they left off last weekend, scoring 10 goals to two in the opening term and basically confirming the result by quarter-time.
Yet a lacklustre second term, which saw Port outscore its more fancied opponent, prompted coach Peter O'Connor to rethink his tactics at halftime.
"I think we just got a bit ahead of ourselves having kicked 10 in the first and probably took things for granted a bit, which we know we can't afford to against the better sides," O'Connor said.
"I think our guys probably switched off a bit but, to their credit, they (Portarlington) knuckled down, they beat us around the packs and out-tackled us in the second quarter and gave us a real wake-up call."
The Demons also had Barwon Heads' measure for most of the third quarter, before the Seagulls added four late goals in time on to restore some confidence.
By the last quarter, the floodgates had well and truly opened.
Forwards Brandon Backwell, Daniel Hovey and James Taylor were all working spectacularly together, competing for top goalkicker as the trio booted 24 goals between them, quashing any theory the three forwards could not function together.
"They're all good players and I think if you're a good player, you can play well in any combination," O'Connor said. "The good thing about today was that they weren't selfish and didn't take each other's space up.
Backwell would have had double figures if not for an unlucky shot that hit the post with only a minute remaining in the final term.
Such was the extent of the victory, O'Connor felt it a hard game to assess.
"We did it in two quarters really, with the 10-goal and 13-goal (quarters) and in between it was a scrappy game," he said.
"I thought they (Port) played pretty well in the second quarter, they out-scored us. But it was good to get a big score two weeks in a row."
Barwon Heads' ruck stocks were tested with the absence of its two main ruckmen, Jed Holland and Eddie Erftemeyer, who missed through injury. But up stepped young Tom Membrey who shouldered the ruck load and performed with aplomb.
Port coach positive despite big defeats - Matt Gibbs
IT'S hard to remain positive when your side has an average losing margin of 118 points and is known as the easy-beats of the competition.
Yet Portarlington coach Troy Beamond is keeping an upbeat manner in making do with what he has, ensuring he tries to get the best out of his players.
The Demons again challenged for periods on the weekend against Barwon Heads.
But just as quickly as Port gained momentum, it fell away again in the final term to concede 13 goals.
While anyone could draw conclusions from the 157-point margin the Demons lost by on Saturday, Beamond felt the scoreline wasn't reflective of the contest.
"We read the paper every Monday, too, and sometimes the paper reads that we've been done by 150 points," he said.
"People probably see that today and go, 'you've got done by 150 points', but they won't understand that, for two quarters in the middle there, how even the game was.
"They just see the end result and that's what it's judged on."
Beamond tries to put the scoreboard aside most weeks. It can be demoralising for player and coach, especially when the opponent is scoring upwards of 30 goals. But if the side isn't applying pressure on the scoreboard, it has to be doing so in other key areas.
"The scoreboard's not the be all and end all," Beamond said.
"At three-quarter time today we were still 12 goals down but you could look past the scoreboard and go, 'well, we're going OK'.
"But it's just the little things, like when they drop away in the last quarter and then they cough up handballs just because they're handballing to no one in particular.
"That's what you can't handle."
Off field, the club is a raging success with its large supporter base and regular social events. On field, it's yet to click.
Beamond puts that down to playing "in patches" and an increasing reliance on a core group of half a dozen players who simply cannot sustain a full game on their own.
"I think today showed that when we have a crack for a period of time we can actually match it with sides," he said.
"The problem today, and the problem all year, basically has been it's been too few doing it.
"Anyone could look through our best players for the course of the year and find who our best players are and it's been the same blokes every week.
"We haven't had those players, the 14-22s, step up at all this year, really, and provide a contest."
At the quarter-time break, Beamond described his side's performance as "embarrassing" in a passionate speech to his players. It's a feeling he's felt in a lot of games this season.
"What's embarrassing, it's not the scoreboard or anything like that because you can always handle that," he said. "It's that some players pick and choose when they go or when they put 100 per cent effort in."
