Round four was held at the weekend with the Bushies hosting GWS Giants Academy at Lavington Sports Ground on Saturday.
After the Bushrangers were dealt a heavy 70-point blow by Geelong Falcons in the round prior, the boys in purple, gold and black fought back hard against the Giants.
However, inaccuracy in front of goal kept the Bushies at arms reach from GWS as they went down for their fourth loss from as many games, 11.11 (77) to 6.16 (52).
Bushrangers coach Mark Brown said while his players are working hard on game day, it’s a failure to do the fundamentals that are restricting their performances.
“(We) got touched up by Geelong which was disappointing, although it wasn’t glaring statistically,” Brown said.
“Then once again on the weekend statistically the game looked alright, very similar inside 50s, very similar tackle counts, identical scoring shots, it has just been our inability to execute the fundamentals at the right time which is cruelling us.
“But we are aware of it and the boys are working hard to rectify it.
“They are improving which is the main thing.”
A shining light has been the emergence of Numurkah product Harry Moon as a key defender.
Brown said the 196cm back has become one of the side’s most consistent and trusted players in a short space of time.
“(Moon) does his job,” he said.
“He is always in a position to defend and he plays with physicality and he has a real desire to win every single contest and as a result it holds him in good stead.
“As a result of consistently beating his opponent, his confidence is growing and he is getting better and better every week, which is what we look for.
“He is one of our players who has just, from the time he walked into our program six months to where he is now, he has just improved out of sight, which is a real credit to him.”
Brown said other names from the region Flynn Grumley (Shepparton Swans) and Harry Hopkins (Numurkah) have had moments where they have shown their skill, but require more time to adjust to the level.
Second-gamer and 16-year-old key position player Angus Williams (Shepparton) unfortunately broke his wrist in the first quarter, with the length of his stint on the sidelines yet to be known.
Defender turned midfielder Ryan Ash collected 14 touches (11 of which were kicks), four inside 50s and three rebound 50s against the Giants.
Brown said he knows Ash’s hard work will pay off late in the year as he continues his transition into being midfielder.
“(Ash’s) transition is at the higher end, he just has to continue working on his craft,” he said.
“He will play some really good football; I have no doubt about that as the season progresses.”
The Bushrangers decided during the off-season to make their training split into Shepparton and Albury-Wodonga hubs to limit travel exhaustion on their players.
Brown said the decision has had its challenges, but he believes it will pay off in the long run.
“We do what we can to limit travel and make the program as accessible as possible,” he said.
“By putting them in hubs and allowing them to train more remotely during the pre-season, we have probably seen a bit of disconnection in how we played in the first four rounds, but we expected that.
“It was always going to be about how the squad was travelling at the end of the season instead of the start, in previous years we have found these boys are buggered.
“We will review like we do at the end of every year and see how it all played out.”
Following back-to-back wins for the Bushrangers girls, the party came to an abrupt halt as they fell to GWS 13.11 (89) to 2.3 (15) on Saturday at Lavington Sports Ground.
Shepparton United product Lana Carroll featured among the Bushies’ best, collecting six disposals and four tackles.
