Bloods survive scare as their star forward shows what they've been missing

Bloods spearhead Will Kain was at his lethal best, booting six goals as his side survived a scare from the plucky Seagulls to triumph 16.10 (106) to 12.10 (82).

The match was just the second of the season for Kain - last year's league-leading goal-kicker - who recently returned from a stint living overseas.

His first game came against North Warrnambool Eagles the week prior, where he was kept goal-less in extremely muddy and wet conditions not suited to key forwards.

His return to the Bloods' forward line might be exactly what they need to take their premiership chances to the next level, with their current leading goal-kicker a midfielder in Ryley Hutchins.

Bloods playing-coach Lewy Taylor said the performance was good for Kain's confidence.

"It straightens us up a little bit for starters (having him), another tall target that can mark the footy, they're sort of hard to find," he told The Standard.

"So he's building nicely so there's still obviously four games to go, he'll keep building from here."

The Seagulls, seventh on the ladder, started strongly against the fourth-placed Bloods, leading 17-8 at quarter-time and 41-34 at halftime.

The Bloods lifted in the third, outscoring the home side 6.5 (41) to 2.3 (15) and looked assured of the win with a 19-point lead at the final change.

The Seagulls didn't give in and narrowed the margin to a single goal before the victors kicked away late.

"I thought Port Fairy played a great game today," Taylor said.

"Their pressure and intensity, especially early on was really good, so we knew it was going to be tough coming up here, they've had some good wins this season and they're definitely heading in the right direction.

"But to our credit, the fellas, I thought they fought it out to the last quarter. I thought our second half was really good.

"I thought Port Fairy probably had us in that first half but I thought we came out and played a good brand of footy after that, so that was good."

Taylor was thrilled to with his side's response in the final quarter when the momentum was with Port Fairy.

"I think that's the sign of a good team, that's how it goes sometimes with momentum and I thought we were able to shut that down and then kick away a little bit at the end by three goals or whatever it was," he said.

"Some guys stood up and that was really pleasing."

Ball-winning pair Hutchins (three goals) and Scott Carlin (one goal) were two of those players while Taylor shone as well with four majors.

Defender Harvey Roberts was also influential.

Port Fairy, which lost two players to suspension during the week including skipper Matt Sully, were best served by VFL-listed youngster Oscar Pollock (four goals) and key tall Tyson Macilwain (three goals).

Seagulls coach Dustin McCorkell identified a period in the third term which proved costly for his side.

"We probably matched it with them for three-and-a-half quarters," he said.

"I think it was probably a 15 minute period in the third quarter where we let their really good players get on top of us. Hutchins and Taylor probably cut us up a little bit too much in the middle.

"But at the same time it's probably a little bit to do with having a couple of players out, putting some young fellas into the midfield which creates a great opportunity. Today they really played well but there was probably just a 10 minute, 15 minute period where their good players really hurt us."

McCorkell praised the performances of Pollock and Macilwain, alongside others for his side.

"I thought young Riley Hall, who's predominantly played forward, went into the back pocket and did a really good job," he said.

"Oscar Pollock probably had his best game for the year. He was really good around the footy but also pushed forward as well.

"Big Tyson Macilwain just presented well for us at centre-half-forward.

"And Jett Hopper and Lochie Gunning as well gave us something in the forward line as small forwards."