Muzzled by Gunnedah last week, the Kangaroos thrashed the Tamworth Swans 20.21-141 to 9.3-57 with Matt Hodge booting six, Dan Overeem five, and Aaron McDonald and James Pearson three.

As impressive as the scoreboard reads though, Kangaroos coach Ben Mitchell was measured in his assessment.

“It was good to get our first win on the board but there’s certainly still some areas we can work on,” Mitchell said.

“The midfield didn’t work as hard as I wanted.”

They were a bit guilty of being a bit slack in defence at times.

Learning their lesson from the previous week, the Kangaroos got the hop on the Swans in the first quarter, Pearson scoring inside the first minute. 

From there they dominated territory and kicked out to a 37 point lead at the first break.

“The start was what we worked on,” Mitchell said.

“Obviously we got blown away early by Gunnedah and the game was just about won at quarter time.”

After struggling to get the ball into their forward line against the Bulldogs, the Kangaroos appeared to find the space and their players a lot easier than the Swans, and defensively, if not winning the ball, were able to disrupt the Swans’ attacking advances.

“Our back six worked really well together,” he said, adding that he was happy with his sides intensity and the way they attacked the ball the first probably quarter-and-a-half.

After kicking his first goal in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter, Hodge was a magnet for the ball early in the second quarter and showed his class to snap two quick goals as the Kangaroos opened up a 50-point lead.

Stifled of opportunities, the Swans eventually found the middle of the sticks midway through the second quarter courtesy of Mark Wardley.

Sam Burges and Nathan Bradburn followed with quick goals as the Swans launched a brief revival.

Mitchell was disappointed with the way they didn’t reset when the Swans got on their roll, rather just kept on attacking.

He thought Robinson and Rhett Graham were their best.

“He’s (Graham) just about been our best every game,” Mitchell said.

Bradburn did his best to keep the Swans in it with five.

It was another round of big scores with the New England Nomads hammering the Inverell Saints 23.13-151 to 5.6-36 in their top of the table clash in Inverell.

Ethan Karpany was on fire for the Nomads kicking eight, while Cameron Graham supported with five and Dave Richards three.

After a quiet first quarter the competition leaders exploded in the second turning a five point lead into a 61 point lead.

The Bulldogs picked up the points in the other game after Narrabri forfeited.