It was Black Diamond’s first clash against Canberra and, although  performing well in patches, they were no match for a slick home outfit.

“We had a few old heads in Lincoln Stewart, Nick Tomlinson and Andrew Scott, but apart from them it was a pretty young group,” Bilkey said. “The average age was about 22. We will tackle Canberra up in Newcastle next year and I think the boys now realise that there is another level that they have to go to. They will learn a lot from it and hopefully they take it back to the Black Diamond as well and take the level up at local footy.”

Canberra kicked three goals in the first term to open a 21-10 lead at quarter-time. From there they took control, landing seven majors in the second quarter to be up 10.5 (65) to 3.5 (23) at the main break.

“They used the space really well,” Bilkey said. “It is a big ground and they they spread from the contest a lot better than we did. We were OK but it took us a while to get into it. It was a much more even contest in the second half, and we didn’t quite get the reward for our effort. Out of nine scoring shots in the third quarter, we kicked something like two-goals, seven. We didn’t finish off. I’m not saying we would have won the game, but it would have turned the tempo around a bit.”

Singleton coach Andrew Scott was the Black Diamond’s best, just ahead of Jayden Rymer.

“Second half we moved Andrew Scott from down back to the middle,” Bilkey said. “We needed a bit more pressure and physicality in there. He was outstanding in the second half in particular. Jayden Rhymer was also really good. He played in the middle but got forward and kicked a couple of goals. They were our two stand outs.”