St Bedes/Mentone Tigers outgunned Collegians all day to run out comfortable 71 point winners on Saturday in old-fashioned wintry conditions at Brindisi Street.
The Wesley team started well but missed some very gettable shots at goal only to see the Tigers stream forward and punish them with consecutive goals and slowly take control of the game early.
Paul Groves, Michael Wintle, Ben Phibbs and Sam Anstey were the Tiger engine who drove the ball forward at every opportunity to give their team a comfortable 16 point lead at the short break and the promise of more to come.
In the second, the Tigers punished Collegians with hard tackling and even better run and ball movement to stack on 5 goals 7 and extend their lead to a match-breaking 33 points.
After half time, the Mentone team applied the vice to Collegians who must have had some thoughts of Septembers past as the Tigers added another 5 goals to nil to put a severe dent in the Trotskys finals dreams.
As they turned for home the Tigers would have gained some comfort from the form of Pete McGettigan in the forward half and the dominance of Paul Wintle and Jonathon Kane in defence along with a healthy 64 point ascendancy.
The last quarter was even but by then the game was gone and the senior team had consolidated their position on the table behind the flag favourites Old Xaverians and De La Salle.
The Reserves, on a five-game winning streak, won by 44 points and played outstanding contested footy to continue to challenge for the top four.
Next Saturday the Tigers journey to Chelsworth Park to take on the ever-dangerous Old Ivanhoe in a testing encounter belying their respective ladder positions.