The Selkirk Roosters snapped a four-game losing streak with a 20-point win against top-eight team Casey Scorpions at Eureka Stadium on Saturday.

They enter a mid-season bye round with a victory to end what has been a tumultuous phase for the team in the Victorian Football League.

A fortnight ago, Roosters’ leaders sat their coach Gerard FitzGerald down and told him they wanted a measure of their competitiveness, to be pleased with their on-field competitiveness. This was after losing four of their previous five games by 80 points or more.

The Roosters staged a massive comeback to get almost within a kick of Sandringham after that talk. Last week they controlled Geelong until a late slip at Simonds Stadium. This week, the Roosters refused to yield.

Experience was down – co-captain Matt Austin, the versatile Liam Hoy, premiership midfielder Nick Peters and Orren Stephenson were among those sidelined with injury.

The Roosters ruck duties were carried out by debutant Jackson Bowen and Rebels’ graduate Rowan Marshall. The pair were up against Melbourne AFL-listed veteran Mark Jamar and while beaten, they served him up a challenge.

North Melbourne-listed midfielder Ryan Bastinac was pure class. Bastinac chalked up 29 disposals, five marks, five clearances, and six tackles in what was his second career VFL game. The Kangaroo last featured for the Roosters in a 2011 road trip to Frankston.

Fellow midfielder Nick Rippon was back to his prolific ball-winning best with 34 possessions and Roosters co-captain Myles Sewell had 25 touches. Andrew Hooper was lively up forward with three goals and six tackles.

The Roosters much-improved accuracy and efficiency was the key to nullifying the Scorpions’ sting. This was evident from the outset with the Roosters’ booting three goals straight to the Scorpions’ 2.5 by quarter-time.

FitzGerald told players in the huddle they had the Scorpions right where they wanted.

Inaccuracy continued to trouble the Scorpions, who went inside their forward-50 once more than the Roosters for six more scoring shots. The Scorpions were flustered.

The Roosters booted three goals to open the second quarter and kept a clear, but not large, buffer to the final siren.

FitzGerald collected his players in a post-match huddle on the ground to remind them exactly the goal his leaders had set a fortnight ago – true measure for competitiveness.

His team enters the bye with three wins from 10 matches and returns to host Richmond for a chance at redemption on July 5.

Meanwhile, Rebels export Oscar McDonald made his first match-day return to Eureka Stadium.

McDonald, drafted to Melbourne’s AFL list last year, had 14 touches in the Casey backlines.

DETAILS

NORTH BALLARAT   3.0  6.2  10.2  11.2 (68)

CASEY SCORPIONS   2.5  3.6  5.10  6.12 (48)

GOALS – North Ballarat: Hooper 3 Tsitas  Bacon  George  Sewell  McKenzie  Marshall  Black  Rippon.

Casey Scorpions: Kennedy-Harris 2 Morris  King  Smith  Hutchins.

BEST – North Ballarat: Bastinac Rippon Kiel Lockyer Hooper Black.

Casey Scorpions: Smith Kennedy-Harris Fitzpatrick Byrnes Rutherford Jamar.

POSSESSIONS

- North Ballarat 335 (Nick Rippon 34, Ryan Bastinac 29, Myles Sewell 25, James Tsitas 24)

- Casey 316 (Jack FitzPatrick 24, Jay Kennedey-Harris 23, Mitchel Gent 22)

TACKLES

- North Ballarat 57 (Ryan Bastinac 6, Andrew Hooper 6, Tony Lockyer 5)

- Casey 54 (Edward Morris 7, Mark Jamar 6)

HIT-OUTS

- North Ballarat 31 (Rowan Marshall 18, Jackson Bowen 9)

- Casey 74 (Mark Jamar 62)

CLEARANCES

- North Ballarat 41 (James Tsitas 9, Nick Rippon 8)

- Casey 39

MARKS

- North Ballarat 88 (Aaron Black 8, Luke Kiel 8)

- Casey 85

MARKS INSIDE-50M

- North Ballarat 8

- Casey 4

HANDBALLS

- North Ballarat 142

- Casey 119