The Giants claimed a 13.11.89 – 7.8.50 victory over the Bathurst Bushrangers Outlaws on Saturday afternoon – their second win over the side this season – just hours after the Bushrangers Rebels took down the previously-undefeated Orange Tigers.

Thanks to those results the Giants, Rebels and Tigers are now equal on 16 competition points, although the Orange side takes the upper hand on percentage. The Tigers and Rebels still haven’t played their postponed, round three meeting yet either.

It’s the first time in the Giants’ short history they’ve been within touching distance of top spot too.

It was the Giants’ work at contests that led to victory.

The Outlaws held an eight-point lead at quarter time but from there the Giants began to turn the game in their favour.

A four-goal final term capped off a special win for the Giants and made their coach Mark Kennedy a very happy man.

“It’s always nice to beat the Bushrangers. Our focus was to play four quarters of football and to just go with them, because they do come out strongly,” he said.

“Paul Jenkins played full forward and I wanted our guys to know that we could work hard without Jenko in the midfield.

“Nath Belbin was out for us as well but guys like Alex Cuttiford, Nic Broes, Reilly Mitchell and Kev Walker really stood up in the midfield.”

The Giants produced a far more consistent match compared to their two-goal win over the Outlaws earlier this season.

On that occasion Giants had to fight hard after almost letting the match get away from them, but on Saturday they played themselves smoothly into the match and learned from every quarter.

“In the first two quarters they beat us in their forward 50 entries by 50 per cent, but we rebounded well and our backs closed them down,” Kennedy said.

“For our forward 50 entries we had a really good target with Jenko up front and he made the most of them.

“It’s great being at the pointy end of the ladder in the competition but we’ll see how we go.”