IT was a bottom two battle that went right down to the wire, as the Hamilton Kangaroos hosted Port Fairy at Melville in a Hampden Football Netball League game which delivered for the crowd.

Aside from Jason Rowan’s 1000th league goal, the result was still not known with five minutes to play, as Port Fairy overturned a 14-point deficit to claim a 10-point win and sing the song for the first time in more than two years.

The Kangaroos burst out of the blocks, but the team’s inaccuracy continued to haunt, as the team kicked 4.6 to take a 16-point lead into the first break.

The Seagulls closed the margin by two points by half time, but that was when the game turned to Port Fairy.

Despite a burst of four goals from Lachie Urquhart, Radush Mohan showed plenty at the other end for the visitors and by the final change of ends, the margin was two goals but the Seagulls were coming hard.

Kaine Mercovich kicked two final-quarter goals, as Port Fairy went on to win, 11.14 (80) to 10.10 (70).

Cam Pither and Mitchell Ryan were named best for the Kangaroos and Seagulls respectively.

Seagulls coach, Dustin McCorkell said it was an important win to ease the pressure on the players.

“It is a big relief, we have done so much work to get where we are and we were all just busting for that win,” he said.

“Now that we have got it, it does relieve the pressure a bit and now the boys know how to win.

“The blokes having their first win, there was probably more inside the circle than out of it when they sung the song.”

A few adjustments and a half time pep talk got the visitors back into the contest and McCorkill said it was an improved workrate which helped late in the game.

“We were under the pump early, we knew Hamilton were going to come out hard,” he said.

“We were probably hurt around the contest in the first half, but I said to the boys we had young legs and told them the tide would turn if we kept at it.

“Merca (Mercovich) was solid in the first half, but his second half was just enormous.”

For the Kangaroos, the loss leaves them as the only team without a win, with coach, Hamish Waldron, putting it down as another game that got away from the team.

“The first quarter I felt we had a lot of opportunities that we could have put them away a bit, we missed too many easy shots at goal,” he said.

“We played three good quarters of footy, it was probably the last quarter they just got on top of us a bit and they had that run and they were always going to come from behind.

“They gave themselves every opportunity to win it and credit to them, they were the better team.”

Reserves

THE Kangaroos remain in the top five with a 21-point win against Port Fairy.

Accuracy helped the team remain in the contest, finishing the game with only one more scoring shot in the 9.7 (61) to 5.10 (40) win.

Kane Taylor was named the Roos’ best, while Jack van der Aa impressed for the Seagulls.

Under-18.5

IT was a comfortable win for the home side in the Under-18.5 contest, winning 9.10 (64) to 5.3 (33).

Charlie Alexander and Kaeden Talay each kicked two majors for the home side, while Ben Marti was named Hamilton’s best on ground.

Xavier Kenna put in a strong performance for the Seagulls.