CULCAIRN broke a five-year hoodoo when it defeated arch enemy Holbrook by 15 points at Culcairn on Saturday.
With the wooden spoon on the line, the Lions led from start to finish to celebrate their first win over their rivals since round 9, 2011, when they won by a point at Holbrook.
Assistant-coach Trent Perczyk was outstanding in his return match from injury with six goals while Cameron Schultz held Brooker full-forward John Spencer to one major.
Culcairn also won the battle in the midfield with Dane and Tim Hallinan, Adam Eady and Simon McLeish winning plenty of the ball.
“We haven’t beaten Holbrook for a while so it was great to get the monkey off our back,” Eady said.
“It’s been too long.
“I didn’t think we played our best football but we got the job done.
“We made a lot of mistakes and that’s something we want to improve on during the next few weeks.
“Hopefully we can get a few more wins before the season is over.”
Culcairn held a three-goal buffer for most of the match with Perczyk providing the target the Lions have been missing for most of the season.
On the other hand, the Brookers lacked a spearhead to capitalise on the good work of Andrew Mackinlay and Josh Jones in the midfield.
Jindera stayed in the hunt for the double chance by defeating CDHBU by seven points at Coreen.
The Bulldogs charged clear in the third quarter with Nick and Kris Holman, Nathan Chamings and Kurt Brereton setting up a lead they refused to hand back.
Chamings continued his good recent form by kicking four goals and looked even more dangerous with coach Josh Walker returning from injury.
Matt Howard, Tim Cooper and Sam Burdon lifted the home team late, but the deficit proved too much to handle.
Howlong overpowered Rand-Walbundrie-Walla to win by 26 points at Walbundrie.
After a tight first-half, the Spiders made the most of the excellent playing surface in the third quarter with Clement Kerinaiua, Hamish Clark and Peter Hancock gaining the upper hand.
The Giants were hamstrung by Ryan Lavery (head) and Justin Gordon (jaw) being out of the match by half-time.
Lockhart stayed in finals contention with a 37-point win over Henty at Lockhart.
With Jordan Matthews and Jordan Harrington firing, the Demons raced clear early and cruised to their fifth win.
Flag smoky Murray Magpies defeated Billabong Crows by 48 points.
