Gallery | Slight lapse costs Bushies in Rumbalara reunion

Levi Power, who was coach for the day in the absence of Mark Brown, touched on the significance of the lapse.

“For the most part, it was a bit patchy, but we felt like we started the game well in the first quarter,” he said.

“A lot of indications were we’re looking pretty positive, but we just fell away in the second where we were chasing the oppo from there.

“It put us on the back foot for the second half, but I thought the second half was much better in terms of what we were after.”

Pioneers went into the game at Rumbalara missing star boy and billed number one draft pick Harley Reid through Victoria Country duties, while the Bushies were without on-ball gun Coby James for the same reason.

The Bushies sustained enough first-quarter pressure to trail by three points and Joeve Cooper’s (Shepparton United) goal kept his side in contention early in the second.

But Power’s side would only conjure four behinds while the Pios piled on 5.4 to shoot out to a 27-point advantage at the half.

The Bushies cleaned up their act as the game went on thanks to solid performances through the middle by Nick Newton and Harrison Hewitt, but the chase soon proved too big a job for an outfit featuring four debutants, one of which being Mitch Grumley (Shepparton Swans).

A 3.3 final term meant the Bushrangers finished the game in style, but Power couldn’t help but feel the game would’ve been much closer if the cat hadn’t escaped from the bag during the second quarter.

“There were definitely some signs where our pressure was really good at stages and we saw some really good attack from that,” he said.

“We started to get the game looking like we wanted it to, but a quarter of footy at the level where if you’re just off a little bit, you can really get opened up at times.

“Something we build our game on is our defensive part of the game.

“We know when that’s at a really good level, it gives us our best opportunity to attack and then play the way we want to play.

“We also know when we’re off in that part of the game, even if it’s just a little bit, it limits our ability and opportunity.”

Examining the bigger picture, Power was honoured to lead the side at Rumbalara, where he jump-started his esteemed playing career.

That, on top of seeing the Bushrangers run out in a specially designed Indigenous-themed guernsey which he had a big part in putting together, made for a proud moment.

“There’s been a lot of work go into it behind the scenes and it was a first in many respects,” Power said.

“It’s never happened in the competition’s history, I believe, that anyone’s worn an Indigenous jumper.

“Footy aside, even that on its own was something that I was really proud to be a part of.

“And then to be able to lead the boys on the weekend at Rumba which has been such a special place for me.

“What it means to have the club named Dungala for the week ― just little things that add up to really significant change.”