ROUND two of the 2025 Ovens and King season threw up close matches and blowouts across the senior football competition.

Up at Bright, injuries rocked Whorouly in their attempt to defeat the Mountain Men at Pioneer Park.

For most of the game the Lions operated with a depleted or non-existent bench, as Bright capitalised with an 18.16 (124) to 2.2 (14) final score.

A five goal to two opening term set the tone, and while the Lions found the scoreboard in the second quarter, Bright was able to run the game out well to dominate possession and scoring.

Cooper Thomason finished with six goals for the Mountain Men, and Darcy Chellew and Wayland Wales were impactful, while Jessie Smith and Corey Southern fought hard for the Lions all day.

Whorouly coach Michael Newton said it was a nightmare from Thursday evening.

“It was one of those days where you really can’t do much about it,” he said.

“It started from Thursday onwards, to have seven forced changes, then one pulled out Friday night, two pulled out Saturday morning.

“The day didn’t start well, then we lost three blokes inside the first 15 minutes of the game so we had no bench from the 15-minute mark.

“Andy [Newton] went down with his back before half-time, so we were down to 17 men, and two of those 17 were limping around on one leg.

“It was a day I hope I never have to be a part of again.”

Despite the carnage on-field, Newton said he was proud of his team’s fighting efforts.

“It would’ve been easy for us to throw the white flag in and say it’s a bit hard, but they fought on right to the end.

“We were severely undermanned, but there’s plenty of learning to take out of it, a lot of things to work on, a lot of structural things we saw.

“It gives us plenty to work on, but it was a really proud effort from the boys to box on.”

Bright coach Michael Quirk said his squad performed exceptionally well.

“We had planned earlier in the week for both [Michael] Newton and [Abe] Ankers to play, so we believed we could minimise their impact in some way,” he said.

“Obviously Whorouly missed them on the day.

“One of our main focuses was to win as much of the football in the midfield and stoppages, to give our forwards plenty of supply throughout the match.”

The Mountain Men will take this weekend off with the bye, while the Lions return home to host King Valley in round three.