Staring down the barrel at three losses to start the season, the defending Second Division champions thumped a spirited Bullets 66-4 in a performance reminisce of last season.

The visitors were gallant in defeat, having to battle with only the bare 13, but had no answer to the Magpies’ speed, width and precision.

“We consolidated some good sets of six early in the first half and that set the platform,” Creek coach Lindsay Bowne said.

Scathing off their ball control in their first two games, Bowne always felt if they could rectify that they could produce something like Saturday.

“We actually did play some good footy,” he said.

“There was some positive stuff there.”

The first half was a demolition with the Magpies piling on nine tries, four in the space of 10 minutes at one stage, to lead 48-nil at the break.

Their play at times bordered on speculative, but there was a sharpness that has been missing so far this season. Feeding off a dominance up the middle their ball movement was crisp and constantly exposed holes in the Bullets’ defence.  

“We got good go-forward which allowed us to put some constructive stuff on and we executed well,” Bowne said.

Their left edge particularly caused the Bullets some headaches with centre Nathaniel Slater scoring four tries and winger Aiden Daniels two. Slater had three of his in the first half, Zac Leonard, Daniels, Zac Buckley, Cody Tickle and Beau Parry also finding the line.

It looked like the pain was going to continue for the Bullets when Buckley held onto an offload and raced away to score in the opening minutes of the second half. But the avalanche never came.

Too passive in the first half, the Bullets stiffened their defence in the second half. They got off the line and closed down the space better, and showed more desperation when required to scramble.

Starved of the ball too in the first half they enjoyed a lot more parity, and the game was a more even contest.

Creek eventually broke the shackles with about 15 minutes remaining.

Slater was the man, finding himself with an open run to the line after they had stretched the Bullets defence.

It came on the back of a couple of sets close to line that the Magpies hadn’t been able to finish.

They were at times guilty of trying to be a bit too fancy, but that temptation is hard to rein in when you are as dominant as the Magpies were. 

The Bullets’ toils didn’t go unrewarded with second rower Andrew Cleal crossing in the final minutes to rousing applause from the spectators.

Prop Steve Garrett was their best, picking up the one referee point and the three club points, from John Cox and Mick Wade.

Bowne thought Buckley, who directed the show well and was a constant threat with his darting runs, captain Thomas Brown and Leonard stood out in a strong team performance.