Facing one of the pre-season premiership fancies on their home patch, the Bushies were right up for the contest early, matching the intensity of the Power boys to head into the main change seven points adrift.
But in the second half, the effects of the seven-hour bus ride to Morwell began to plague the Bushies, as Gippsland piled on 10 majors after the main change to run away a handsome 14.10 (94) to 8.9 (57) victor.
A far-from-ideal start to the season for Bushrangers coach Mark Brown and his troops, he said he made a glass-half-full assessment of the match with plenty of positives to take out of the way the boys attacked the first half.
“The end result would suggest we are disappointed, but we don’t think that was a fair reflection of where the group is at,” Brown said.
“We also have to consider the build-up to the game, some of our boys were on a bus for seven hours the day before which obviously impacts performance, it’s certainly not an excuse for the final result.
“But I think in the first half we showed enough to suggest that we will be more competitive this year in the way we moved the ball and attacked the contest.
“After half-time we just tailed off. How much you equate (it) to fatigue and the build-up or just a lack of concentration, I think it is a bit of column ‘A’ and a bit of column ‘B’.”
While it was a disappointing day on the scoreboard for the Bushies, a host of Goulburn Valley-based young guns shone in their first Coates Talent League outing for the season.
After being identified by Brown as the “standout” on the track throughout the pre-season, Shepparton United’s Oscar Ryan translated that form into being one of his team’s best performers on the day.
Playing a crucial role in defence, the utility picked up 25 disposals and took four marks while also playing a shut-down role on Power star Zane Duursma.
“I thought Oscar was very solid, he had the job on Duursma and thought he controlled him well when he went forward,” Brown said.
“He (Duursma) is a likely top-10 draft pick, so it was very good to see Oscar match it with a player of that calibre while also managing to find a bit of the ball himself.
“His pre-season form was outstanding and he was great again on the weekend.”
Mooroopna’s Coby James made his return from a shoulder reconstruction and had no trouble finding the ball to finish with 24 disposals.
Meanwhile, Shepparton Swans young gun Oliver Warburton showcased his improvement during
the summer with 18 touches, playing a crucial role as an inside midfielder.
“Coby James was solid through the midfield, he was still a bit rusty coming back from that shoulder reconstruction and didn’t use the ball as well as he usually does, but it was great to see he had no trouble finding the footy,” Brown said.
“Oliver Warburton was very good, he was in our midfield rotation as a bottom-ager and really developed in the off-season in the way that he has gotten bigger, faster and stronger and that was on display.
“He gave us a bit of bite when he was on the ball and for his third game of under-18s footy he was great.”
The Bushies will get the opportunity to register their first win of the season this weekend as they host Northern Knights on their Wangaratta Showgrounds home deck.
Brown said he was looking forward to seeing how the boys fared without the travel and in a more familiar environment against a Knights squad that will be brimming with confidence after an opening-round victory.
“It is always nice to be home, we don’t shy away from that, so we’ll be expecting to have a more consistent effort over the 100 minutes,” he said.
“Every side in the Coates Talent League is dangerous, they all have classy players and when it comes to Knights they’ve got a lot of talent in their ruck stocks which will present a unique challenge for us.
“They had a strong win over GWS last week, so we will pay them their due respect, but the focus as it is every week will be on us and how we can improve.”
