THE Portland and Hamilton Anzac Day football tradition will play out at Melville Oval late on Monday afternoon when the Tigers hit the road in search for a third straight win to start the Hampden Football League season.

Portland has impressed with strong wins over Warrnambool and Cobden in the first two rounds, but coach Jarrod Holt said Hamilton Kangaroos, particularly on their home deck, will provide tough opposition.

“We are happy with our start, it’s much better to have two wins than two losses,” Holt said.

“Emotionally you get pretty excited to start a season like that, but you have to take the emotion out of it and remember we are only two games into a campaign that will hopefully run 20 weeks so the reality is there is a lot to play out and anything can happen.”

Hamilton is 1-1 to date, having been outplayed by Koroit in round one but rebounding to defeat Warrnambool in round two.

“Hamilton will be tough, they beat Warrnambool, they play their home ground really well and we know they will have some good strong bodies. They will be hard at it, we will need to match it with them.

“With the small ground the centre clearances will be really important.”

The Tigers will make at least one change to their line-up with Jamo Ballantyne returning to NAB League duties with Greater Western Victoria Rebels, while ruckman Ben Malcolm may also miss after sitting out most of the Cobden win with a groin injury.

“At this stage I think Ben is unlikely to play, but we will leave that decision pretty late with him.

“If he’s not feeling 100 per cent we won’t risk him, remembering that we also have quite a short turnaround to our next match the following Saturday.”

The form of back-up ruckman Toby Oakley during the first two rounds has also given Portland the confidence to rest Malcolm if need be.

“To Toby’s credit he played really well in the first game against Warrnambool and he really made it impossible for us to not pick him against Warrnambool, and that worked in our favour with Ben going down.

“Toby’s taken his opportunity and whoever the next guy is who comes up we hope they grasp their chance too.

“Whoever we bring up from the reserves we are in a decent position this season in that we have some very good players to draw from. Whoever comes in will be ready to go.”

Holt said the club, as they always do, will embrace the meaning of Anzac Day.

“It has been a tradition now for a fair while and it is not lost on us.

“We will get down to the Dawn Service at Portland and then travel up to Hamilton later in the day and be involved with the pre-match events up there.

“It’s a privilege to be able to play on the day.”