Jackson Bowen shouldered a heavier ruck duty when Matthew Tuminello left the ground early with a broken nose but the Lakers proved their depth. Steven Kennedy continued his terrific form for the Devils, forcing the Lakers to pay extra attention to negating the midfielder, while Lakers forward Lucas Anderson looked ominous. Tom Carey, Nathan Pring and Linc Barnes hit the scoreboard in the Lakers’ strong first half and Tim Madden was impressive in defence.

The Devils looked like they had not quite come to play. They failed to kick a goal in the third term. Key players failed to convert at pivotal times. The Lakers piled on four last quarter goals, including a terrific Nathan Monk snap. 

Lakers coach Gavin Webb said the match highlighted an even team performance.

“The games we have lost this year we have had patches where we’ve played bad quarters of footy so to have a four quarter performance and such an even contribution with multiple goal scorers was terrific,” Webb said.

Darley coach Jarrod Edwards frustrated. “We probably had 10 blokes with under 10 touches, so that makes it hard to achieve a good result. (We had) some players who didn’t just have bad games, they had terrible games”.