On a beautiful deck and in front of a strong crowd, the neigbouring leagues produced a thrilling exhibition of representative football as Hume claimed a fourth straight interleague victory, 14.9 (93) to 13.14 (92) while a valiant Farrer went a long way towards restoring its reputation.

In a game of see-sawing momentum, there wasn't more than two goals between the sides until the middle of the fourth quarter, when Hume turned a 10-point deficit into a 14-point lead with four unanswered goals - including two in two minutes to Warren - and then held on grimly as the game was decided by the narrowest of margins.

"It was a close one, it was a good contest. I just told the boys at the end, do it for yourselves. You've put your hands up to represent the league and you've done the hard work, go out and give it a crack with 20 minutes of hard work," Hume coach Brent Piltz said after his third straight win in charge.

"It could've gone either way, it to'd and fro'd a bit and it was just who made the most of momentum when they had it. Full credit to them, they kept coming... I thought we just needed two or three goals to get our momentum going but to the Farrer's credit, they didn't let that happen."

Farrer looked a little shaky in the opening exchanges, down two goals after 10 minutes. But they found their feet to go to the first break three points up, as Curtis Steele and Mitch Haddrill provided leadership, their young guns rose to the occasion, Brad Moye opened up the opposition with speed and everyone else bought in to the bid.

Despite losing Michael Collins to an ankle in the first quarter and being down by 10 points early in the second, Hume came back for a narrow half-time lead after Warren kicked his first.

By then it was clear the Farrer League wasn't going to be rattled, remaining composed when Hume threatened to get on top, and arguably controlling the game for longer stretches as their entire 22 warmed to the challenge.

But Sedgwick and Jordan Harrington lifted Hume in the second half, and the home side led right through the third quarter, despite Steele seemingly putting Farrer in front as the siren sounded at three-quarter-time, only to have a near-certain goal ruled touched.

The loss of defender Duncan McMaster hurt Hume further though and Farrer's ascendancy from before the last break continued into the last quarter.

They grabbed the first three clearances to snatch a 10-point lead. But dominance in the middle swung back and Hume rode it to a match-winning lead through goals to Kade Garland, Warren (with his fourth and fifth) and Tyson Neander, who capped a fine game with his second after getting on the end of a Sedgwick clearance.

Piltz was pleased with the 'grit' in his side as they defied a barnstorming Farrer finish after Steele and then skipper Brayden Ambler kicked goals to put them within a point with 90 seconds to play.

"This one was a real fight, it was a real dire struggle so just the fact that they really did fight it out towards the end. We looked a bit flat at times like the game might have been getting away from us but we kept at it," Piltz said.

At times, Hume were cleaner with the football and when they went forward were able to find a more straightforward path to goal - more often than not, through Warren.

"He was a real good target for us down forward, he had sticky hands today which was handy, real handy," Piltz said.

And it was no surprise that Sedgwick got the ball in his hands at the last bounce, after Ambler's goal, and Hume hung on for a minute and a half.

The Farrer League won plenty of admirers with their performance though, not for bravely hanging in but for taking the game to the Hume and getting on top at times, only to fall a solitary point short, having kicked 14 behinds.

FULL-TIME

Hume 3.2, 6.5, 10.8, 14.9 (93)

Farrer 3.5, 5.7, 9.11, 13.14 (92)

Goals: (Hume) Danny Warren 5, Tyson Neander 2, Jesse Margosis 2, Kodie O'Malley 2, Jordan Harrington 1, Kade Garland 1, Zainel Bin Busu 1; (Farrer) Matt Wallis 3, Curtis Steele 3, Mitch Haddrill 2, Zach Walgers 1, Chris Gordon 1, Louis Miller 1, Brayden Ambler 1, Harry Fitzsimmons 1.

Best: (Hume) Nicholas Sedgwick, Tyson Neander, Kodie O'Malley, Brian Lieschke, Jordan Harrington, Danny Warren; (Farrer) Curtis Steele, Jim Carroll, Jack Driscoll, Jack Cullen, Mitchell Haddrill, Nic Curran.