PORTLAND was unable to earn a repeat of their Hampden Football League Anzac Day heroics on Saturday, going down to rivals Hamilton Kangaroos 13.14 (92) to 5.10 (40).

In what was their final game at Melville Oval ahead of the ground’s major redevelopment, the Roos arrived with something to prove, coming out the gates with a five goal to one first term.

It was a lead which was going to prove extremely challenging to surmount, especially in conditions which can only be described as miserable.

While there wasn’t consistent rain during the match, the wet weather in the lead-up to the game had ensured that the surface was largely comprised of mud and water through sections of the ground.

It was in these conditions that the Tigers’ in-an-under players such as Davey Denboer, who senior coach Jarrod Holt said was “clearly (their) best player” on the day, as well as Marcus England, Toby Jennings and ruckman Ben Malcolm were able to affect the contest the most.

Unfortunately for them, the work through the middle of the ground wasn’t able to translate in the forward line, as the Tigers struggled to capitalise even when they had plenty of possession.

In spite of Jake Wilson’s tireless work in the defensive 50, alongside Paul Procter’s efforts as a defender while also looking to create from half-back, the Roos were more effective in their attacking forays.

While the Tigers kept pace and even trimmed the lead back slightly heading into the final term, the Roos were able to slam home a couple of early fourth-quarter goals to put the game to bed.

Holt said he was pleased his side had managed to remain in contention throughout the entire match.

“We were competitive the whole game, it was just a case of them being a bit cleaner with some skill going forward,” he said.

“I thought around the stoppages we were pretty good, they had their moments when they got some good clearances, but we had some pretty good moments as well.”

In saying that, he said he would have liked to have seen his side convert more on their opportunities when they did move the ball forward.

“I don’t have the stats in front of me… but I reckon (in the third quarter) they might have only had five inside-50s and scored from all of them.

“Meanwhile we were peppering it in there, but we couldn’t quite execute… it felt like we could have nearly evened the game up by three-quarter time, but we were still four goals down.”

Holt said that at this stage of the season, his goal was for the group to “find some joy” before the end of round 18.

“We’re struggling to find much of it, but we’ll just keep chipping away and try to make it fun… hopefully we can get guys to keep improving and go from there,” he said.

He added there had to be an emphasis on the positives within the group, be it good passages of play or senior debuts.

“That’s the kind of thing we have to focus on, we had another player in Noah Nicholls play his first game in the seniors today, which was great to see.

“He (Noah) is going to be a real good player, he’s got a high skill-level, nice and clean, and he reads it well.

“He’s still pretty light and skinny as a young player in senior footy, I expect him to get better and better, I’ve been really impressed with his ability.

“It looks like he’ll play a variety of roles, we had him on the wing and up forward and he’s also played a bit down back in the 18s.”

Other games

Camperdown continued to stake its claim for a spot in the finals with a 11.10 (76) to 8.12 (60) win over North Warrnambool Eagles.

The game was close throughout; however, the Magpies were able to gain the ascendancy and maintain it from the second quarter onwards.

Charlie Lucas, Sam Gordon, Cameron Spence, Brendan Richardson, Shane Morgan and Harry Sumner were best for Camperdown, while Jarryd Lewis, Jack Johnstone, Jackson Grundy, Jett Bermingham, Bailey Jenkinson and Judah Greene played well for the Eagles.

In other results, South Warrnambool defeated Warrnambool 8.12 (60) to 1.4 (10), Cobden got the best of Terang-Mortlake Bloods 10.5 (65) to 4.8 (32), and Koroit took down Port Fairy 7.3 (45) to 5.5 (35).

Reserves and under-18.5s

Portland’s reserves side ultimately came up just short in a tight battle with the Roos, going down 6.4 (40) to 4.5 (29).

The Roos’ first and third quarters got them the win, as they outscored the Tigers five goals to one over those two periods of play.

Kane Johnson, Lachie Stephens, Chad Finck, Tarkyn Smith, Zac Stuchbery and Brock Pengilly were in the Tigers’ best.

The under-18.5s were able to claim a massive win over a top three side in Hamilton, claiming the points 7.6 (48) to 2.5 (17).

The Tigers dominated the first three quarters, kicking six goals while preventing the Roos from registering a single one.

Hamilton was able to find its feet late, but it proved to be too little to trouble the Tigers, with Darcy Campbell, Kodi Jones, Broque Field, Kostya Vallance, Jake Tunstall and Jordan Heinze named in their best.