Albury defeats Wodonga by 44 points in Ovens and Murray football

The match was billed as a blockbuster but it was a dud as the Tigers played near-perfect football early to seal the win after only 16 minutes with a five-goal break.

After starting with five straight wins, Wodonga suddenly looks like a team which hasn't played finals for 14 years, while Albury is on target for a league record-equalling 14^th straight finals campaign.

The home side found solace in that they only 'lost' by 11 points after quarter-time, as the Tigers claimed a 14.14 (98) to 8.6 (54) win.

"We started the game really well, we base a lot of our game around that pressure, compared to the previous week when we played (Wodonga) Raiders, we were a little bit off, but we brought that pressure early," Albury co-coach Shaun Daly offered.

Wodonga was a 'deer in the headlights' early.

In his return from a broken jaw, Jacob Conlan was too strong for interleague defender Charlie Morrison after just three minutes and two minutes later, Ben Kelly was too tall for another opponent.

Two poor kicks out of defence gifted goals to Tom O'Brien and Riley Bice, while Jeff Garlett ended the first quarter by, cleverly, holding the ball in one hand and snapping a sixth major.

Given there were a few drops of rain, which made handling slightly more difficult, the Tigers' first term combination of lightning ball movement and fierce pressure was realistically as good as you would see.

The rain cleared after quarter-time and the diminutive Adam Jorgensen produced an inspirational piece of play, tearing through like he's 100kgs, setting up a goal for Noah Spiteri.

In his first game for a month after breaking a finger, Wodonga's Angus Baker had six touches in the first eight minutes after half-time to help cut the margin to 21 points, but then Albury's lightweight Garlett did a 'Jorgensen' and ripped through traffic to nail a crafty left foot snap.

Conlan started superbly to kick three majors, Bice was also terrific with three, O'Brien (two goals) was dangerous, while Brydan Hodgson continued his superb season, taking a series of intercept marks.

Oscar Willding booted three goals, but without Baker, who ran himself to exhaustion, Jorgensen and on-baller Josh Mathey, it would have been 10-goals plus.

And to cap a tough day, veteran Tom Johnson was charged in the final term with intentionally striking Kolby Heiner-Hennessy.

Albury's Elliott Powell was blasting out of traffic when Harry Kitching ankle tapped him.

Powell was ropable and charged back at Kitching, but before he had a chance to remonstrate, Kitching had been pushed over by another Albury player as Johnson raced in to protect Kitching.

"They had the attack for 20 of the 27 minutes in that first quarter, but after that, we halved the contest," coach Jordan Taylor suggested.

Wodonga is in a four-way share of second and after successive heavy losses, there's doubt it has the class to grab a double chance.

But the Bulldogs can take heart from Wangaratta Rovers, who also struggled against Albury, but have since rebounded with two terrific wins.

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