The Inverell Saints ruthlessly plucked an undermanned Tamworth Swans to the tune of 216 points at Varley Oval on Saturday.
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The Saints led by 76 points at half-time and things only worsened from there for the Swans.
Already missing up to 10 key players, according to coach Paul Kelly, the Swans lost captain James Dunston at half-time which saw the floodgates open up.
Inverell rammed home another 22 goals in the second half – Chris Whitton booted a total of eight goals while Mike Gouldwith snagged five for the game – with Tamworth kicking just the one point to make the final score 33.21 (219) to 0.3 (3).
Ben Ellis and Jake Cannon dominated the centre while Kyle Payne was active around the ground for Inverell.
Kelly said the loss of James Dunston hurt his side but said his players kept on trying right to the final whistle.
“To our boys credit, we fought it out. We toughed it out and didn’t give up,” Kelly said.
The Swans are hopeful of several key players returning to the lineup in the coming weeks.
“We should get four [key players] back over the next couple of weeks, it’s hard when you have a lot of inexperienced players in the team,” Kelly said.
“It’s a lot of guys first year of footy. It’s tough but we knew that.”