Hollie Phillips fires in goal for South Warrnambool

Crossing from Hamilton over the off-season, Phillips drained the first five goals against Cobden to set her side up with an early lead.

Phillips went on to score 47 of the Roosters' 52 goals in an 11-goal win over the Bombers and said the contest against Cobden was "definitely physical".

She praised her teammates' ability to put its pre-season training into action and said the partnership between herself and captain and goal attack Annie Blackburn had quickly blossomed.

"Annie's been great," Phillips said. "Because she has more experience than me, she guides me in the ring.

"Having that extra person to lean on has definitely been a helping hand."

South coach Will Jamison said he was thrilled by his entire team's performance in its opening game.

"We stuck to our structures and our game plan for probably 50 of the 60 minutes," he said.

The Roosters ran out to its match-winning 11-goal lead by half time, with centre Meg Kelson and wing attack Isabella Rea finding plenty of space to feed into Blackburn and Phillips.

"I've been really happy with the cohesion of the attacking end," Jamison said. "It can be difficult when you have a new player coming in, particularly in goal shooter.

"But I thought we found (Hollie) really well under the post, she worked really well with Annie in the goal circle, and our feeders worked off reading her and finding her as well."

On the defensive end, Jamison said he was impressed by Ally Mellblom, Carly Watson and Mali Baillie's ability to be "intense while remaining disciplined".

"We pressured a lot of balls but always remained in play and that is something we've been working on," he said.

Cobden coach Sophie Hinkley said a loss in round one wasn't necessarily a bad thing for her group.

"Last year we were undefeated and we worked through lots of things, but it didn't give us those growth opportunities," she said.

"To be able to look at these times when there is gaps in what we're doing, it was a positive in the way. We had lots of things that worked, especially our defence.

"But we weren't having those times where we were as mentally fit to make those right decisions against a quality opposition."

She said she was pleased her side fought back and posted an even second half with South while winning the final quarter.

"We had some things that didn't go our way early on in the game, but we were able to adapt and make some changes and they worked well," Hinkley said of shifting Remeny McCann and Sarah Moroney between defensive postings and Alicia and Sophie Blain in wing attack and centre.

Hinkley, who is on maternity leave and coaching from the side-lines this season, said she missed being out on court but had "every faith" in the players to "get it done" come round two against Port Fairy.

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