An increased emphasis on contested ball during the second half was the key to the Bombers eight point win over the Bulldogs on Saturday night.

The Bombers trailed by 14 points at half time before a six goal third quarter set up the narrow victory.

Midfielder Ben Howlett said it was important that the team simply walked away from the match with the win.

“They are not always pretty and it was certainly a pretty ugly game to be a part of tonight but we are happy to get the four points,” Howlett told BomberTV.

“It is a bit of a mindset thing for us, we probably went away from the things we want to do and we got a little bit ahead of the ball.”

“We had to revert back to our game and for us that is contested ball so we just went away from that a little bit.”

Howlett said the key after half time was to ensure that they got numbers to every contest.

“We packed up the stoppages, bought a few more numbers up around the ball to make it a bit more contested,” he said.

“We were able to get some run and carry out of the stoppages going into our forward line as well which was good.”

Jake Carlisle and Joe Daniher worked well in tandem in the second half combining for ten marks.

Following the match coach Mark Thompson labeled Daniher’s match the best of his short 12 game career.

“Jake and Joe both of them together are starting to come along now and they are both starting to push up the ground to have an influence upon the game,” Howlett said.

“We encourage them to go for their grabs but it is not always going to be pretty for them so we as a team just have to fight and scrap for every possession.”

Howlett also praised the performance of Zach Merrett who finished the match with a team high six tackles for the game.

“He is a little terrier, we love him,” Howlett said.

“He puts on lost of pressure and wins us the ball back so the boys are loving him and if he can keep doing that he will stay in the side.”