KEYSBOROUGH goal machine Luke McGuinness steered through 11 of his team’s 18 goals to single-handedly bury a dazed Tooradin at the Western Port Oval on Saturday.

While McGuinness’ stunning game was the focus of much of the post-match hype in the victorious Burra rooms, coach Greg Siwes was quick to point out that it was the overall team effort that told the story in a result that legitimised his side’s top-five position.

“It wasn’t just Luke. We set it up well for him and we kicked the ball to the advantage side of our forwards all day,” he said.

“I put that on the boys at training during the week and we worked on it. They responded and I’m rapt.”

On the other side of the ledger there was despair among the defeated Seagulls.

The players had set themselves to win every game at home in 2007, but were exposed as lacking the manpower to counter the dominance of McGuinness and his more composed teammates in a crucial contest.

The damage was done in a scintillating eight-goal to three opening term from the Burra and, from the first bounce, it was apparent that Keysborough had come to play.

Midfielders Clinton King, Daniel Morland and Siwes took advantage of Shaun Witherden’s ruckwork and dominated the clearances, slamming the ball to McGuinness who snared four of seven unanswered goals in the first 15 minutes of play.

Tooradin was shell-shocked and went on the defensive, but had no answers to the Burras’ power.

The Seagulls clearly missed injured defenders Justin McGrath and Ben Disney and underlined their backline problems by moving star full-forward Adam Cook to McGuinness in the second term.

The momentum of the game was set however and the big-marking spearhead strode from the field at half-time with eight goals to his name and his side leading by 43 points.

One positive aspect of Tooradin’s season has been a new-found ability to react under pressure and, despite the lead, Seagull supporters retained belief that their side could turn the tables after the long break.

However, while there was a marked improvement in their effort, the task proved too great.

The Seagulls upped their work rate in the middle and at stoppages with classy trio Beau Miller and Adam Splatt winning more of the ball and sending it forward.

Burra defenders Corey Wilkinson, David Prib and William Gayfer worked hard to counter the home side’s comeback and the move of Cook to defence left Tooradin one key player short in attack with Aaron Hyde and Aaron Setford the main targets.

Tooradin’s pressure increased markedly in the third term, but Keysborough held its nerve and retained the 43-point margin at three-quarter time.

The final term saw the Seagulls throw caution to the wind and attack persistently, led by coach Tom Hallinan from half-back, together with Miller in the centre.

Keysborough’s break was always going to be defendable however and, despite outscoring the visitors four goals to one, the task was too great.

Prib, Wilkinson and youngster Tyson King joined McGuinness among the eye-catchers for the Burra and Siwes acknowledged that the question mark had been on his side to beat a good side away from home.

“I felt as if we were always in control after the first quarter, but you always expect good sides to come back and they did,” he said.

“To beat good opposition at their home ground in the way we did is very pleasing.”

The significance of Keysborough’s win was not lost on Siwes who is clearly enjoying both his on and off-field role with the club, but said that there was still plenty of work to do.

“It’s in their minds. We’re able to come up for big games and that’s important, but there’s still plenty of improvement,” he said.

“In a perfect world everyone plays well on the same day, but that hasn’t happened yet so we have to keep working to improve.”

Hallinan was disappointed with his players’ approach to the game and said it had to improve if they wanted to play finals football.

“We didn’t have the mindset to play team football today. We played individual football and that’s why we were given a lesson,” he said.

“Keysborough were on their game from the start and played great team football all day.

“It took until the last quarter and half for our guys to team together and it’s another learning experience.”

Apart from himself, Miller, Hobbs and Andrew Elborough, there were few consistent contributors to the Seagulls’ effort and Hallinan said the lessons needed to be learned quickly and thoroughly.

“We need to use the effort by Keysborough as a model of how to play team football,” he said.

“There is still a learning curve and at the moment there’s a bit of a gap, but we did show character to come back.

“Our preparation needs to be better and we have to learn to deal with the pressure week in, week out.”