Ballarat led for much of the day, but BMS drew level late and then kicked away en route to a 102 shots to 93 victory.

BMS division one player and president Kevin McLean said after a slow start to the season, things were now starting to click with the side.

With a few new players coming into the side, roles within the team were now becoming clear and Saturday’s result was proof they were working.

“It was a great win,” McLean said.

“We’re starting to jell as a team now, we’ve nearly got the mix right.

“We thought at the start of the year we were very disappointing...but we’re back on track.

“We had to see how players settled in...they can’t just walk in and find roles, you’ve got to find out their niche and where they fit and what’s best for the overall 16 players – I think we’re close to that now.

“We knew we were playing the top two teams this week and next week, so we thought if we could win one of those it would put us right in contention towards the end of the first half of the season, which will set us up.”

McLean said the team always had the confidence it could match-it with the top sides, Saturday just reaffirmed that.

However, it was not getting ahead of itself, well aware this was just the start of what it hopes is a fruitful campaign.

“We’ve always had the confidence, it’s just a matter of when it was going to click – it’s come together over the last couple of weeks.

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, we know there’s a long road ahead but it certainly puts us in good stead to know we’re very competitive as a club.”

Meanwhile in other division one matches, Creswick made its own statement by defeating Learmonth, Webbcona beat Ballarat East 103-76, Mt Xavier accounted for Central Wendouree by 14 shots and City Oval comfortably defeated Smeaton.