Hosting the wooden-spooner at Lancaster Recreation Reserve in round 16, Lancaster put on a goal-kicking clinic to warm up for fierce competition in the post-season.
The Bulldogs were held scoreless in the opening quarter, while the Wombats unleashed in front of goal with 10 majors to get their day under way.
Merrigum finally impacted the scoreboard in the second period with a pair of behinds, while Lancaster continued on its ravenous path with seven more majors by half-time.
The Wombats’ quietest period came in the third term, tallying 6.10, while the Bulldogs submitted its final score for the match.
Leading by nearly 160 at the final term, Lancaster sent one final rain down on Merrigum with 13 goals to blow the visitor out by a staggering 237 points.
The final score was 35.30 (240) to 0.3 (3).
Thomas Davies was the head of the hydra for the Wombats, collecting a 10-goal bag and being crowned best-on-ground.
“(Thomas Davies) is a guy who doesn’t like to miss games, he looked forceful and was able to finish well in front of goal, so it was good to see him get the reward for effort,” Lancaster coach Nick Ryan said.
“He’s usually the guy up the ground trying to deliver it to blokes and fills their boots, so it was nice to see him do it himself.”
Ryan reflected on the game and highlighted how his side used the match as a way of developing structures in preparation for finals, while also giving everyone a share of the ball.
“It's that time of year when we are still trying to play guys in their regular position and strengthen up the way we structure around the footy,” he said.
“It was really good to see the boys in a big blowout win not getting selfish and taking hot shots, still sticking to their structures and build off something we can take into the finals.
“I know Merrigum hasn’t had a win yet this year, but they still put 21 players on the park that you’ve got to beat so we set our target for the first half to get the job done and from there once we had a strong lead, we tried to implement some things that’ll help in finals.
“Take some risky kicks and move the ball the way we want to against those top-end sides.
“We moved some players around a little bit, but that mainly came down to making sure that everyone got a feel of the footy instead of just sitting in the back pocket all day.”
Ryan also looked ahead to the looming finals, with the last couple of games of the home and away season serving as a good warm-up for the side that is currently in high spirits.
“Avenel and Stanhope will be good games for us coming into the finals with the seasons they’ve had, still being around the finals mark, so we should be able to get good competitive games,” he said.
“It’s the time of the year when we are starting to look at the post-season, obviously we aren’t missing finals from here and would like to think we’ll finish top two.
“We’ve already got our minds on finals and we are trying to play the way we will in finals and try to adjust to things we didn’t do as well against sides like Murch and Shepparton East earlier in the season.
“I can’t fault the boys, the energy is high, and they can all see we have a special group, and we’ll head into finals and give ourselves every chance to win it, but regardless we’ve had a good season, and they’ve all enjoyed it.”
