Coolamon found themselves down by eight points a couple of times inside the last quarter but rallied strongly to win the local derby, 10.9 (69) to 9.10 (64) at Ganmain Sportsground.

Coolamon forward Joe Redfern lifted with the game on the line and booted three final term goals to almost will the Hoppers over the line in his first game back from injury.

Redfern converted either side of a Pio Munkara goal deep inside the last quarter to send Coolamon to an 11-point lead.

Aaron Proctor replied with a goal with 50 seconds remaining and the Lions were on the attack inside 50 when the siren sounded.

The win, just Coolamon’s third of the year, meant a great deal to the Hoppers in a week where they lost former player and president, Garry Armstrong.

“I’m relieved to get the win,” Coolamon coach Connor Neyland said.

“It’s been an emotional week for the club, they’re a family that’s put 100 per cent effort into the club. He’s a former president and what not so it was good to get the win for the family.”

Neyland was thrilled to see his team dig deep and respond when put under pressure in the last quarter.

“We’ve let ourselves get in positions where we’re eight or 10 points down and the game gets away but we showed a bit more resilience today, which was good,” he said.

He hopes the win can be the turning point in a season that promised so much.

“Today was do or die for us. It’s a little turning point with momentum and we have to slowly keep improving from here and keep in touch with the finals and we can only hope to get into finals,” he said.

“We need more consistency, and more of a term effort. When we haven’t put in a team effort, that’s when we’ve been battling. We’re not a team of stars or anything so it has to be a team effort.”

The game was only scrappy early but picked up after half-time.

GGGM kicked four of the first five goals in the third quarter to hit the front, only for the Hoppers to respond with two late goals to narrow the margin to one point at three-quarter-time.

Riley Corbett kicked his fifth goal to send the Lions eight points clear early in the final term before Redfern helped inspire the comeback.

He finished the day with 4.3, with all of his goals coming after the 22 minute mark of the third term.

Will Greatz performed well in an entertaining duel with Corbett, while Mitch McKelvie and Marshal Macauley were others to shine in the win. Unfortunately for Coolamon, they lost Luke Redfern to a hamstring injury.

GGGM would be frustrated with the result after working back into the contest and getting themselves in a position to win.

While Corbett kicked five goals, they were often too predictable in attack and the Hoppers were able to get numbers back.

Corbett finished with 5.4 for the day, while Aaron Proctor worked hard through the midfield.