A NEWLY restored playing list wasn't enough to get Ararat over the line in Round 13 when the senior side suffered its second loss to the Horsham Saints this season.
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The Wimmera League teams clashed on Ararat's home turf Saturday and the Rats welcomed back Dylan Shelley and Tom Mills from injury.
Shelley immediately made his presence known, kicking the first goal of the match.
James Laidlaw and Tyler Cronin kicked two goals each, and Daniel Mendes scored one.
Coach Shane Fisher said there were a few fundamentals the Rats got wrong.
"The wind played an important role in the game but there were some fundamentals we didn't do right," he said.
"We didn't spread the Saints like we should have and we didn't execute the footy well enough. We turned the footy over way too many times.
"We just let the Saints kick a couple of goals against the breeze, and in the third quarter we had an inside fifty and we just didn't capitalize on it, so I think that's a couple of the main reasons we lost."
Fisher said the Saints played a very defensive game.
"They flood you, and they did that very well yesterday," he said. "On the rebound they ran the ball very well, so all credit to them and I've got no doubt they'll be playing in the finals."
On the Saints side, it was coach Luke Fisher and Angus Martin who kicked multiple goals.
Saints' Fisher said his side had an advantage with the wind.
"They had the wind int he first quarter and we went in at quarter time three goals each," he said. "I think that's where we won the game - in that first quarter when we were able to kick into the wind."
By half time the Saints had clocked up five goals and the Rats had four.
"We went in at three quarter time a goal up. The Rats only kicked one goal by the wind, which was really good of us to not allow them to have that goal," Fisher said. "They worked really hard in the last quarter, but it was just too much for them. We came over the top."
Fisher had not gone into the game assuming the Saints would get up on the Rats.
"It was a great win for us," he said. "They've only lost a couple of games coming into it and one of them was to us, and we thought they would be a hard team to beat - especially on their own oval.
"It was a really good game all day but I just think we played really good footy."
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