HAMILTON Kangaroos found the mark in their Hampden Football Netball League Anzac Day clash with Portland at Hanlon Park, winning 15.12 (102) to 6.5 (41).

It was a tale of two halves in many respects, with the Roos dominant in the first half, as they outscored the Tigers, 81-8.

Their co-captain, Darcy Russell, proved to be an unstoppable target inside the forward 50, as he finished up with seven goals on the day.

The Tigers however were not going to go down without a fight, able to have a stronger third quarter defensively before stepping up even further in the fourth quarter, kicking four goals while holding the Roos to just one behind.

Tom Sharp was impressive up forward despite limited opportunities for most of the day, bagging four goals, while Ben Malcolm once again produced a quality performance in the ruck.

Hamilton coach, Brad Thomas said it was “very exciting” to come away with a positive result on such a big occasion and take out the honours.

“We just continued to work on the systems that we’re trying to put in place, and this was another step forward,” he said.

“Wins and losses don’t worry us too much, it’s just about developing our systems and our style of footy.”

Thomas said he was particularly impressed with what his side was able to produce in the first quarter, as they put the Tigers well and truly on the back foot inside the first 15 minutes of the match.

“We had a really strong first quarter obviously and I think that came down to the pressure that we were able to apply, we were able to hurt them by creating turnovers and then hitting targets inside 50,” he said.

“I think we took a lot of learning from the second half, I thought Portland came back pretty strongly despite being down and showed a lot of fight.

“We let ourselves down a little bit in the fourth quarter, Portland only kicked one goal in the first half and we ended up conceding four in the last bit of the game.

“We did try throwing guys around into different positions here and there just to change things up.”

Thomas said he was very impressed by best on ground winner, Russell, who received the Ted Kenna Medal for his efforts in the forward line.

“He’s a great target up forward for us and particularly in the first half he was outmatching them time after time, in the second half he slowed down a bit, I think Portland threw a bit more at him but it was a credit to him what he was able to do,” Thomas said.

“I thought we had a lot of strong performers across the ground, in particular young Charlie Field playing in his first game for the season, his performance was very pleasing.”

Thomas said heading into a more than two week break the side is happy with where it’s currently placed in the context of the season, with two early wins on the board, as they look to continue to build towards the future.

“The first game against Cobden I thought we were thereabouts, and then the win against Camperdown, and I thought we had our moments against South (Warrnambool) as well and then this game,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of learning experiences to come and I’m excited to see where it takes us.

“We’re looking to change a lot of people’s perception that Portland and Hamilton are kind of separated from the rest of the competition and not able to really beat anyone, we want to show that on our day we’re up there with the best in the competition.”