South Warrnambool defeats Warrnambool at muddy, wind-swept Friendlies

Warrnambool coach Dan O'Keefe was rapt with his players' endeavour and pressure against Hampden league ladder-leader South Warrnambool on Saturday.

But, after losing the toss and kicking against a howling wind in the opening term, he knew they faced a stiff challenge.

The Roosters kicked six of their eight goals in the first term, going on to win 8.12 (60) to 1.4 (10) at a muddy Friendly Societies' Park.

Just three more goals - two to the Roosters and one to the Blues - were kicked after quarter-time.

Only one of those came after half-time as scoring dried up on a wet afternoon.

O'Keefe said circumstances were tricky.

"It was a pretty important (coin) toss to win in the end," he said.

"It was interesting how the ground was played. It was a pretty strong breeze to one end and the ball was getting through the air in the first quarter with a new ball that was quite dry at the time.

"South were kicking goals from 40 or 50 metres out easily and by the second quarter the ball wouldn't get through the air very well so we couldn't even kick goals from 35 metres out."

O'Keefe said the oval's condition made it hard to move the football.

"It was pretty frustrating because if we had the wind in the first quarter I felt like we would've been up because that was the scoring end and then the game would've been really interesting to see how it panned out," he said.

"I know that's easy to say now but the reality is it was a big toss of the coin.

"When we realised you couldn't move the ball from the second quarter onwards, it made it really, really tough."

Warrnambool, which was pleased with debutant Hugh Morgan, threw Maskell medallist Jye Turland into a different role.

"We played him as a spare back. We figured it wasn't going to be an aerial marking day so as a spare defender we wanted someone on the ground," O'Keefe said.

"We felt like Jye could play that role, that he's never done before in his whole career and he played it really well.

"We played him up one end of the ground where the wind was going as a back, forward, back, forward."

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