Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes coach Nelson Foley placed favouritism upon Collingullie-Wagga in the aftermath of their 68-point loss to the Demons over the weekend.
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The Goannas conceded six unanswered goals in the opening term on Saturday at Mangoplah Sportsground and eventually went down by over 10 goals to the second-placed Demons.
In addition to speaking about a lacklustre performance from their perspective, Foley also credited the strength of the Collingullie outfit.
"Look we're really disappointed," Foley said.
"But credit to Collingullie, I think they're the best side in it at the moment and they are probably the most complete side we've come up against.
"They've just got strengths all over the board, but from our perspective it was a dirty day and there's no hiding that.
"We still remain really positive about where we can get to this year and our goals remain the same.
"We've got a good chunk of work behind us now, but we've been handed a big reality check and it's time to look each other in the eye and be honest about where we are at and decide what we want to be for the remainder of the year.
"We came in wanting to prove it's a top three and we firmly believe that we can make it a top three at least this year, but we let ourselves down tremendously."
It was supposed to be a day of celebration for the Goannas as assistant coach Harry Collins celebrated his 200th senior game for MCUE.
Foley agreed it was not a nice way to celebrate the contribution that Collins has made over his time at the club.
"It was a dirty day and it was probably soured even more that we couldn't give H a real celebration on his 200th," he said.
"I thought he fought really hard as he always does and he's just the epitome of a Mango man.
"He didn't want it to be about himself whatsoever, it's a tremendous achievement and hopefully we can give him some justice in the remainder of the year."
The Goannas were hit with the late outs of Bailey Jones (sore back), Doug Arthur (work commitments) and Charlie Harper (GWS Giants Academy commitments) which didn't help their cause ahead of the clash with the Demons.
They were put further on the back foot when Xavier Moller was ruled out in the first half after straining his quad.
Flynn Collins continued his breakout season with another strong performance while Harry Fitzsimmons and Ethan Schiller also continued to work hard.
Foley praised the efforts of Collins and he believed his work rate is what led to his strong performance.
"Flynny was the shining light," he said.
"He's been tremendous every week this year and he just works hard.
"He's quick and he's a talented forward, but at the heart of it he's just learnt how to work hard and just backs himself to keep working.
"He knows that at some stage it's going to fall his way and he certainly was a shining light for us."
