THE Hamilton Kangaroos have continued their charge up the Hampden Football Netball League (HFNL) Open netball ladder, following a nine-goal win against Port Fairy at Gardens Oval on Saturday.

Port Fairy looked comfortable early in the round nine contest, making the most of its time in possession to take a two-goal advantage into the first break.

The visitors bounced back and put together a 19-goal quarter, grabbing the lead and going into half time ahead by eight goals.

Hamilton extended the scoreboard advantage out to 14 goals at the final break, but the Seagulls fought out the contest with vigour, putting up 16 goals to reduce the deficit to nine at the final whistle.

Kelsey Lewis shot a game-high 38 goals for the Kangaroos, while Tara Elliott top-scored for the home team with 26.

Emily Forrest was a standout for the Seagulls, while Hayley Sherlock was named Hamilton’s best player.

Kangaroos coach, Nat O’Dea said it was important to keep the winning momentum going ahead of an important clash against Koroit this week.

“It is just good to get another win,” she said.

“We had really good middle patches, the second and third quarters were our best.

“Our start and our finish wasn’t up to our expectation, but a win is a win.

“Full credit to Port Fairy, they never gave up and I hope they get a couple of wins.”

Injuries again forced the team to adapt to changing positions, as Kellie Sommerville and Leesa Iredell were removed from the game during the opening term, as a precaution with both still recovering from niggles.

“We started differently, but we only got not even 15 minutes of trialling that before the girls came off and we just need to be as flexible as we can,” O’Dea said.

The Kangaroos coach was also happy with how both ends performed during the game.

“Kels is the stereotypical shooter, and if she misses, she will usually get the rebound,” O’Dea said.

“Her and Hayley are providing a really good combination.

“That (defensive) combination is going to grow with each week, getting the knowledge off Emma (Sommerville), Ella is a real sponge.

“Each week she is going to come up on key position players and we have the confidence in her to rise above that.”

The win moves the Kangaroos up to seventh on the ladder, two games outside the top five.

O’Dea said the team need to reverse results from the first half of the year if they are to push for finals in 2022.

“Halfway through, we definitely have to turn three or four losses into wins in the second half of the season,” she said.

“To take out a top five team would be the goal, but we would love to win against more than one.”