Look out, Kyabram is back to its best.

The Bombers dominated the past decade with four flags in seven years and, though, a premiership hasn’t yet materialised in the 2020s, the black and red brigade is looking simply scary this season.

Kyabram tore strips off Shepparton United in Saturday’s Goulburn Valley League affair at Deakin Reserve, landing a mammoth 29.19 (193) to 11.11 (77) result over Shepparton United — the biggest total witnessed in the league in 10 months.

Deakin’s scoreboard was working overtime as Kyabram’s forward line peppered the posts, with Riley Ironside running away with seven majors as the game’s top marksman.

The forward line clearly did its part.

But in co-coach Corey Carver’s eyes, the key to raining hell on the Demons resulted from Kyabram’s off the ball shift.

“I know it sounds stupid, but it’s the defensive stuff — we're not going out there to say let's try and kick a massive score,” he said.

“The idea is to go out there defensively, do everything right, win the ball back and then get it moving.

“I think that helps; if you win it back at the source, then you tend to get an overlap going the other way which helps with the score.”

Kyabram’s pressure rating was through the roof from go to whoa, yet despite an early Bombers hailstorm, United took the lead five minutes in via a smartly taken bomb from 50 off Liam Serra’s boot.

The host was rapid around the outside when shifting the ball out of the corridor and midway through the first quarter the Demons found themselves 20-13 up.

Unfortunately for United, that was as close as it came to building a lead.

Kyabram surged ahead with a flurry of goals and, despite a superb mark and conversion late on from Jayedon Hexter, the Bombers led by 23 points at the close of a 37 minute-long opening term.

Kicking off the second quarter, Zac Norris and Adam Pulsoni hit the post in rapid succession for the Bombers — a theme of the first half — but after a lull, Ironside broke the tension with a left-footed dart that curved nicely through.

United barely got hands on the pill inside Kyabram’s defensive 50 for a 20-minute spell, and Mick Mattingly got some reward for effort as he hung out the back, found himself with nothing but green stuff ahead of him and bolted through for his first major.

Then came the Bombers’ big salvo.

After a first half of domination on the tackle count, Kyabram made United pay with a romping 10.2 third quarter to lead 146-63 with a term left to play.

Kyabram’s liquid brand of offence flowed into the final quarter, pouncing on United’s mistakes with ruthless aplomb, as Ironside made the last five minutes his own with three goals to close out the game.

Reflecting on such a hammer-fisted performance, Carver said the game was broken apart by Kyabram’s willingness to go hard at the contest and allow United zero space to breathe.

“It was just on our work rate again,” he said.

“I've been on the boys all year, we just have to make sure you're working hard on the body, tackle hard, frontal pressure, just make that relentless.

“I've always been a big fan of once you do that, then the game flows offensively from that.

“Our tackle rate was really high today, so that was probably the most pleasing part.”

On a day when Kyabram ruled the roost at Deakin, Carver paid credit to a select few Bombers who caught his eye.

“Our mids have had a really good start to the year, so Mattingly’s been great, (Kaine) Herbert’s been really good, ‘Dogga’ (Jack) Russell has only started with us this year and he’s been really good and I thought Zac played well in a ruck as well,” he said.

“So when you've got all four of those guys going to work, it’s a huge help.

“I thought Zac Cerrone had probably his best game for us as well, so those two small forwards, him and Riley (Ironside) played really, really good.”

For United, Kade Chalcraft and Jesse Cucinotta (two goals) shone during the heavy defeat while Liam Serra was the other Demon to kick multiple majors.

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Friday, 20th June 2025

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