A 1-5 start to Bungaree's Central Highlands Football League season could have put an end to its season, and in a sense it did as the Demons missed finals, however, they went down with a fight in the second-half of the year.
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A five-game winning streak followed and if it wasn't for a lockdown announcement before round 16, it could have been six and the Demons may have potentially snuck into the top eight.
As it happened, Bungaree was prevented a chance of challenging for the finals in the final two rounds and it had to settle for ninth and miss out on eighth spot by 3.78 per cent of games won to Skipton.
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A couple of close losses early in the season was all that separated Bungaree and the teams just above it in the top eight.
The Demons gave up a 10-point three-quarter time lead in a low scoring affair to Buninyong in round one, eventually losing by one point.
They challenged reigning grand finalists Hepburn in round five for four quarters but could not get the job done, losing by 12 points.
Two wins there and Bungaree would sit 8-3 and even on percentage of games won with fifth-placed Buninyong.
The Demons can feel hard done by when looking back at the season and the games they missed due to lockdown.
Creswick and Ballan were their match-ups for round seven and eight, both games Bungaree would have entered as favourites but were ultimately abandoned.
It also faced five of the top eight sides in its first six games, four of those being eventual top four sides.
A positive to take from the season is Bungaree knows that with a young list, it's not too far off the top sides and a jump into the finals in 2022 is not a big one to make.
Coach Ryan Waight has re-signed for 2022, highlighting his side's potential as one of the reasons he stayed on.
"There (was) some promising signs in the back-end of this year winning the last five after starting behind the eight ball and just missing finals," he said.
"There's some motivation there to go a couple of steps further next year to get into finals and see how far we can bat."
Record: 6-5, 54.55 per cent games won, 113.30 traditional percentage
Ladder position: Ninth
Leading goalkicker: John Butler (25)
Season:
Round one - Bungaree 7.9 (51) lt Buninyong 8.4 (52)
Round two - Bungaree 6.10 (46) lt Gordon 19.9 (123)
Round three - Bungaree 5.10 (40) lt Dunnstown 15.9 (99)
Round four - Bungaree 13.13 (91) def Beaufort 1.2 (8)
Round five - Bungaree 7.7 (49) lt Hepburn 9.7 (61)
Round six - Bungaree 9.7 (61) lt Rokewood-Corindhap 14.10 (94)
Round nine - Bungaree 10.12 (72) def Clunes 4.1 (25)
Round 10 - Bungaree 7.13 (55) def Learmonth 5.7 (37)
Round 11 - Bungaree 6.9 (45) def Daylesford 5.9 (39)
Round 12 - Bungaree 18.21 (129) def Carngham-Linton 3.4 (22)
Round 17 - Bungaree 7.9 (51) def Newlyn 7.7 (49)
Ollie Nash
A keen sports follower covering the Central Highlands Football and Netball League's and the wider sports scene in Ballarat. Get in touch at ollie.nash@thecourier.com.au.
A keen sports follower covering the Central Highlands Football and Netball League's and the wider sports scene in Ballarat. Get in touch at ollie.nash@thecourier.com.au.
