The Navy Blues made the trip to Donald and stated their intentions from the first bounce.

The visitors posted six first-quarter goals and kept the Royal Blues to two to set up a 23-point lead by the first break.

The Charlton line-up included Andrew Hooper, who kicked 10 goals for the Navy Blues in his only senior game last year.

He was lively around the ground on Saturday, but up forward it was Joseph McGrath and Cody Gunn who were making life hard for Donald.

The second quarter saw the Royal Blues find some form and, while they could not wipe off the deficit, they were able to pull it back to 16 points by half-time.

Donald tightened its defence and managed to hold Gunn to one goal in the second term, while at the same time halting the Navy Blues’ forward moves.

Ross Young was the key on-baller in this quarter and gained his fair share of the football.

He also kicked a couple of goals to keep the home side in touch.

Donald continued to pull back the Charlton lead after half-time, holding the visitors to a single goal for a second consecutive quarter. 

Less than two goals separated the teams at the final change.

Both teams have finished games well in previous weeks, and a tight finish looked on the cards.

But it was not to be for Donald, who had a disappointing fourth quarter.

The home side let itself down with by scoring only three points in this term, while the Navy Blues kicked away with four majors to register a 35-point win.

The final score was Charlton 80 to Donald 45.

Rhys Thompson was named Charlton’s best and had good support from Kieran Sait, Luke Kyriakides, Tim Nicolson, James Baird and Dean McKay. McGrath and Gunn kicked four goals each for the Navies.

Young, Nick Garner, Charles Murrie, Scott Wood, Daniel Pearce and Blake Luehman were strong for Donald.

Young was Donald’s only multiple goal-scorer for the match with two.

In other matches, reigning premiers St Arnaud suffered a 105-point defeat at the hands of Sea Lake-Nandaly Tigers, while Birchip-Watchem got over the line against Wedderburn 51 to 47.

Wycheproof-Narraport remains the only side undefeated after beating Boort by 30 points.