Eddy Dann starred with a five-goal haul and Baldivis stampeded their way to a second straight victory with a 64-point win over Waroona on Saturday evening.
The star midfielder/forward was in brilliant form against the 2017 grand finalists, hitting the scoreboard and doing damage through to middle to inspire his team to a 4.8 (32) to 13.18 (96) win.
It took the Brumbies a quarter to get the wheels in motion, as a young Waroona team put to them to the test early.
Baldivis only led by a slim two points at the first change, but found their feet moving the ball between the two 50m arches with fluency in the second term.
Adrian Goff put in a valiant effort for the Demons, alongside Mat Thomas’ two-goal display and a good game from Ben Wright, but it wasn’t enough to match it with the Brumbies.
With senior players like Sam Eccles paving the way Baldivis turned a 17-point half time lead into 37 points at the final break, before running the game out with gusto to end up with a 10-goal victory.
Coach Craig Hamersley was rapt with his side’s ability to respond after a poor start.
“I liked the way we kept our heads after not starting the way we wanted to, and we were pretty good after being challenged initially,” he said.
“But overall it was a bit of a patchy performance. We’ll look to learn from that and move on.”
Moving on quickly will be a priority if Baldivis is to keep it’s undefeated record in tact, as they clash with fellow unbeaten Pinjarra in a top-two battle this coming Saturday.
Easily the game of the round, the two sides meet without either having a loss next to their name in the first two rounds.
Hamersley said his side would need to quell Pinjarra’s movement from half back if they are to have any chance of handing the reigning premiers their first loss since round 12 last season, which came at the hands of Baldivis.
“There are a few areas of Pinjarra’s game that stand out, and they’re a great side so it’s obviously going to be difficult to stop all of them,” he said.
“But the way they move the ball in transition is probably the benchmark for the competition, so we’ll need to put some time into that.”
Baldivis play Pinjarra at Baldivis Oval on Saturday, while Waroona takes on Halls Head.