The current crop of Tamworth Swans have notched up plenty of firsts in the past few seasons and on Saturday they scored another.
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For the first time in Paul Kelly's tenure as coach, the Swans beat the Gunnedah Bulldogs.
"We haven't beaten them in at least six years... it's been a long time," Kelly said.
After leading by 24 points at quarter time, the Swans increased their lead at each break to win 22.15 (147) to 11.7 (73) at No. 1 Oval.
The Tamworth outfit arguably saved their best football for the final quarter of the match where they had 12 scoring shots including six goals.
"I thought we played pretty well most of the game but I was really happy the first 10 minutes of the last quarter," Kelly said.
"We kicked three or four goals and that sealed the game. It put it out of reach for them."
One thing that Kelly said the Swans had improved on immensely was putting together four quarters of footy.
"We might have only had a lapse in concentration for 10 minutes or so in that game - we're not doing it the whole quarter," Kelly said.
"If a team gets a run on, we're slowing them down and working it back to how we want to play. We're doing that better and better every game."
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Adam Cruickshank was named best on for the Swans with Kelly saying his captain "really stood up in the midfield".
"His tackling and leadership around the ground is pretty good," Kelly said of Cruickshank.
"It was hard to pick the best players - there was three or four that could have got best on."
Meanwhile, the man that tagged Cruickshank on Saturday, Sam Proudfoot, was named best on for the Bulldogs.
"I thought they battled really well together, it was a good contest between them," Gunnedah coach Andy Mack said of Cruickshank and Proudfoot.
Mack said all-in-all it was "a good game of footy".
"I think the Swans had a bit more run and spread than we did and a little bit more structure," he said.
"We've got a fair few new guys still learning the game. I think in passages we were at least up to speed with [the Swans]."
"I thought the Swans put together four pretty solid quarters which was the difference."
Gunnedah's Mark Ewington kicked four goals for his side while Rhys Chillingworth led the way for the Swans with seven majors.
Kelly said he plans to keep Chillingworth - who also plays in the ruck - up forward
"He's a big target, he's hard to stop, I'd personally like to keep him there but if we need him in the ruck, he's quite happy to go in there," Kelly said.
Kelly said the haul came on the back of some hard work by Chillingworth.
"He works hard on them [kicks] and he's hard on himself if he misses," Kelly said.
"I think he's got his kicking routine worked out pretty well now. He kicked some really nice goals and he works hard on his footy."
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