Williamstown gatecrashed Werribee Tigers’ first home match of the season with a 74-point demolition job at Avalon Airport Oval on Saturday night.
The Seagulls blew away the hosts from the 17-minute mark of the first quarter, booting 14 unanswered goals to leave the Tigers in a daze.
It was one of the most remarkable patches of football you are ever likely to see between two VFL premiership contenders.
“I can’t think of a better patch of football we’ve put together,” Seagulls football manager Chris Dixon told Star Weekly.
“At the 17-minute mark, we hadn’t kicked a goal. From that point on, we kicked 14 straight without a reply from Werribee.
“It was some of the best football we’ve played in my time at the club.”
There is no shortage of contenders trying to knock Williamstown off their premiership perch this season.
Some of the experts believed Werribee was at the head of the queue since beefing up their alignment with North Melbourne.
Dixon conceded such an incredible run-on from his side against a quality outfit was “probably unexpected”, but he could tell the side was switched on in the rooms before the game.
“They were near the top of the ladder for a reason, but we were a highly motivated group,” Dixon said.
“The boys were keen and even though we got the win last week, a lot of players were looking to bounce back in their performances and as a team we were looking to bounce back.
“We came out with real strong intent and pressure.”
Onballer Michael Gibbons was scintillating for Williamstown.
The Norm Goss Medal winner in last year’s grand final had 21 possessions and five clearances by half-time.
A hard tag was applied to Gibbons in the second half and he still finished with more than 30 possessions.
Gibbons’s form suggests he could be the next in a long line of Seagulls to be given an opportunity at AFL level.
“No doubt he’ll be in the mix to play in the state game and, we hope, there will be 18 AFL clubs and their recruiting departments looking at him because he gets better and better each week,” Dixon said. “He even showed his ability to work through a tag, work off that and still have an impact defensively.”
Former St Kilda players Sam Dunell (five goals) and Arryn Siposs (four) were a lethal attacking force, with nine goals between them.
Willie Wheeler was superb at the coalface, Ed Carr executed a shutdown role on prolific Tigers ball-winner Trent Dumont and the silky skills of Jack Dorgan, Brett Bewley and Sean Hetherington came to the fore in the 20.17 (137)-9.9 (63) romp.
Williamstown, second on the ladder with a 4-1 record, will face Northern Blues at Burbank Oval on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Footscray had a resounding 20.21 (141)-5.6 (36) win over North Ballarat at Whitten Oval on Sunday.
AFL-listed players Lukas Webb, Lin Jong and Mitch Honeychurch were outstanding for the Bulldogs.
Josh Wallis and Shaun Wyatt each kicked three goals.
