Playing away from home against a side they thumped by 60 points in their first meeting this season, the Goldminers were hot favourites to earn another win.

However, a number of line-up changes meant that this version of the Goulburn team was a much improved one.

For the first three quarters they managed to stay in touch with the Goldminers before the margin blew out in the final term, finishing with Bathurst earning a 27- point win result.

“They weren’t a bad side, they had four players who weren’t there last time for various reasons, a few of them I think are only playing home games,” Goldminers captain Teagan Burke said.

“Four out of their five starters were new to us and that added a fairly unpredictable element to the game that took us a while to deal with.

“The start of the match was very close and we were surprised by their physicality and size. 

We struggled with our defensive transition and couldn’t hit as many shots as we would have liked, but as the match went on we started to clear that up.”

In the first term Goulburn actually managed to earn a lead, albeit only by a couple of points, going to the first break 15-13 up.

Bathurst hit back in the second, turning the deficit into an 11-point lead. 

But that didn’t break the resolve of the Bears, who squared the third quarter to trail 51-40 at the last change.

However, the final period was one-sided as Bathurst poured in another 27 points before full-time to pick up a valuable win and maintain their hold on third place in their pool.

Burke herself finished with 34 points for the Goldminers, while young guns Emily Matthews and Matilda Flood added 14 and 11 respectively.

“It was a really good match for us to have because we were pushed. 

At half-time we had to identify a few things that weren’t going all that well and come out and improve them, so it was satisfying to get that done,” Burke said.

“I was delighted with the win, I thought personally on my own performance I was a bit sporadic with when I was scoring, but in that third quarter early on we needed the experienced players to show a bit of leadership and I think we managed that.

“Everything sort of stemmed from our defence, which was nice.

“Now we’ve got a double-header this weekend with Tamworth on Saturday and Newcastle on Sunday, the Newcastle game will be the real focus because they’re just outside the top four and have a bigger, physical, experienced team that will take some beating.”

BATHURST GOLDMINERS 78 (Teagan Burke 34, Emily Matthews 14, Matilda Flood 11) defeated GOULBURN BEARS 51 (Naomi Lucas 16, Raylene McClelland 12)