A poor first quarter cost Warragul Industrials big time as they were swept aside by Phillip Island at Western Park on the weekend.
Clashes between the two clubs have historically been some of the most exciting in West Gippsland. The same couldn't be said for Saturday's affair, where the Bulldogs piled on six goals to none early to essentially have the day won by the first break.
The 6.9 (45) to 15.7 (97) defeat sees the Dusties overtaken by the Bulldogs on the ladder and fall to fourth position.
Effort and intensity was there in spades from the Dusties as they fought the good fight even after going down early. It was their finesse around their forward line that left a lot to be desired.
And giving a lead like that to an experienced squad like Phillip Island is never going to end well.
Wilson McGillivray and Sam Russell gave their all in the Dusties defence and further up field later in the day.
Jeremy Monckton never stopped running up and down the wings while also putting in several applause-worthy defensive efforts.
Will Gibson and Brenton Hillard crashed and bashed in an effort to drag their team back into the day and teenager Josh Bradley did his level best in the ruck against superstar Cam Pedersen.
Speaking of, Pedersen starred for the visitors, the Phillip Island coach clearly relishing the match-up against the Dusties' depleted ruck stocks with coach Bob McCallum on the sidelines.
Fellow veteran Jack Taylor was an excellent anchor inside 50 for the Bulldogs, clunking marks like nobody's business and kicking four goals.
Brayden Kleverkamp took several lovely intercepts in the backline as Hayden Bruce was a menace on ball.
Mark Collison, who not too long ago was lined up to coach the Dusties, and Connor Thompson rounded out Phillip Island's best.
Neither side was able to make much impact early in a rather scrappy display, plenty of kicks going wide of their intended targets.
Though the Dusties were giving themselves opportunities with their contest work, their execution inside 50 left a lot to be desired.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, gladly punished that inefficiency as Nick Anderson got them rolling with the first two goals of the day.
Coach Cam Pedersen, enjoying not having McCallum to worry about, drove home the next from long range. Compounding the home side's issues was an ankle injury to Aaron Mitchell, who left the field and did not return.
Jack Taylor got on the board twice in quick succession and Jack Huther finished the quarter in style thanks to an accurate set shot after the siren.
The Dusties finally struck back early in the second after some beautiful ball movement resulted in a goal to the returning Goy Lok.
Phillip Island still had the answers, however, despite a Dusties youngster behind the goals employing the unusual tactic of shouting through a traffic cone megaphone-style to try and put off their shots.
Consecutive goals to Todd Beck and Tim Hancock gave the home side a look in at the deficit as they put together their best period of the day, working their way well on top around the ground for about 10 minutes.
That was before the Bulldogs' slick movement saw Charlie Bruce walk into an open goal to ensure that good work didn't go much further.
Brenton Hillard had a chance to reduce the margin on the half time siren only to watch his kick clatter into the right hand goal post.
Another miss just after the main break by Tom Cornwall allowed the Island to put to bed whatever faint hopes of a comeback remained.
Warragul Industrials found some highlights late, namely a lovely crumbing goal to Ben Nichol early in the last and a rare major to defender Kyan Willis, who had been thrown further up field in an effort to generate some momentum.
The Bulldogs ended the day as expected though, comfortable winners by the final siren.
McCallum said post-game his team's first quarter had plenty of positives to it despite the score.
"I thought we did lots of good stuff. We're still not connecting forward and turning our good plays into goal. I feel like we could've been something like 4.2 in that first quarter but we ended up not scoring a goal," he said.
"We've still got a bit of trouble around our contest I felt, just giving them a lot of first possession off the deck. Dominant ruckman but still, it was that next possession once they won the footy that we weren't on top of."
McCallum also expected to be only two to three weeks away from a return himself which was a big sigh of relief for the club given the early fears he had injured his ACL.
It doesn't get easier for the Dusties next week when they travel to play second-placed Tooradin-Dalmore.