Port Fairy breaks two-year losing streak with come-from-behind win against Hamilton Kangaroos

Port Fairy produced a spine-tingling final-quarter comeback to defeat Hamilton Kangaroos at Melville Oval to produce its first Hampden league senior win since May 2021.

The Seagulls - down 12 points at the last break - kicked four goals to one in the fourth quarter to run out 11.14 (80) to 10.10 (70) victors.

Four-goal hero Radush Mohan - one of the competition's most exciting small forwards - kicked the first before midfield bull Kaine Mercovich stepped up with two of his own, the second through smart work in traffic.

Boom recruit Jason Rowan, who earlier in the day had slotted his 1000^th career goal, kicked the sealer off the ground in the goal square late in the term much to the delight of the success-starved Port Fairy faithful.

It was a far cry from the troubles of 2022 when the club was forced to forfeit a senior match due to a lack of players.

New coach Dustin McCorkell said it was a special result which "got the monkey off the back" after a solid off-season recruiting drive and dedicated pre-season.

"I just love it. The win is great - it's still packed outside the rooms, it's still packed inside the rooms," he told The Standard post game.

"(I love to see) little kids just coming up and saying 'g'day' and they love their footy, it's just such a great club.

"It's the first time I've been involved in a one-team town. It is the heart and soul of the town.

"It gives people something to do on a Saturday and there's so many families."

Hamilton, which remains winless after four rounds, started the better of the two sides and would've been more than 16 points clear at quarter-time if not for poor goal-kicking (4.6).

Rowan kicked his 1000^th goal at the seven-minute mark of the second term but the Roos, who had solid service up front from Lachie Urquhart (four goals) and Hamish Cook (two), took a 14-point buffer into half-time.

McCorkell was bullish about the Seagulls' chances.

"We've been pretty good in the second halves all year so we had confidence," he said.

"I brought our six or seven young kids in all together and said they were going to have to do it for us and they had fresh legs, like Oscar (Pollock) and Ollie (Myers) and Radush up forward who kicked goals when we needed them.

"We were under the pump there for a bit and he kicked them.

"Mitch Ryan, just out of under 16s, young Kelby Fleming, just out of under 16s, played their roles today too."

Captain Matt Sully was deployed at centre half-back but "played nearly every position on the ground" in a performance which inspired his teammates to dig in.

"His season so far has just been sensational. It is the first pre-season he's done in a while," he said.

"He's been fit since the start of the year and I spoke to him about getting to centre half-back and getting our defence right but today was just one of those days where we needed him to play in about five different spots so he did that.

"He did everything - marking the ball down forward, down back. He read how the play was.

"Kaine Mercovich's last quarter was as good as you'll see as well too. They're just a couple of great leaders for the footy club."

An injury to debutant Sam Horne, who dislocated his shoulder in the opening half, was the only sour note for the Seagulls who host undefeated Terang Mortlake at Gardens Oval in round five.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: