A half-time "shake up" helped Warners Bay hit their stride and power to a 57-point victory over Maitland in the Black Diamond Cup at Feighan Oval on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (17.12 - 114) led 25-8 after a solid first quarter, but only won the second by 10 points to lead 55-28 at the main break.
The sides scored 28 a piece in the third before the Bulldogs fired six goals to Maitland's one in the last to finish decisive winners.
"Maitland (8.9 - 57) were pretty good, they came back at us in the second and third quarter and it wasn't until the fourth quarter that we got our rhythm going," Warners Bay coach Nathan Harkness said.
"We needed to correct a lot of things at halftime because we were playing pretty poorly in the second; we thought it was all just going to happen for us.
"But Maitland, to their credit, came back and gave us a real fight and a bit of scare.
"It took a shake up at halftime to come out and play a bit of team-first football."
Harkness felt shifting Brandt Job to centre-half forward from the middle "sort of changed the game" for his side.
"Once we put him down forward, it straightened us up," he said.
The Bulldogs leapfrogged Maitland to sit fifth with the win - their second this season.
"We haven't hit our straps yet. We've been up and down," Harkness said.
"We've got a very young list.
"We've got Singleton next week and City the week after so we really want to win those two going into the bye."
Cardiff continued their strong start to the season with a 96-52 win over Terrigal Avoca, while rain forced the cancellation of Killarney Vale's home game against Newcastle City.
