Hamblin shines up forward as Lions claim narrow win over Collingullie-Wagga

In a see-sawing battle, the Lions made the most of their chances after halftime to boot six goals to two to run out 11.13 (79) to 8.12 (60) winners.

Matt Hamblin surprisingly spent the entire game one out in the goal-square and he finished with three goals as the Lions emerged from round four as the only undefeated side.

GGGM coach Sam Martyn noted it's only early in the season, however he was still massively proud of his side to claim such an important win on the road.

"You've got to look at it in perspective, it is round four and both teams are trying to figure out who they are essentially," Martyn said.

"We are fully aware of that, however we're really proud of how we played today.

"It was Aaron Proctor's 100^th game which sort of gave everyone a bit of a spark and a bit of a step up, because he is the heartbeat of our team.

"I think the way we played epitomised the way he goes about his footy, it was tough and uncompromising at times.

"We had to bite down on the mouth guard and blokes were able to do that and they had their moments and impacted.

"It wasn't pretty by any measure, however a win out at Collingullie is a tremendous effort so I'm really proud of the group."

Hamblin is known for his damaging influence through the middle, however he was thrown deep forward in a change of roles.

Martyn said it was great to see him excel in a different position as he finished as the leading goalscorer for both sides.

"It was actually cool to see," he said.

"We thought we'd try something different and see how that looked and it was actually pretty impressive.

"It'd be nice if he kicked more scores than out on the fulls, however he's just so damaging wherever he goes, he draws a bloody good defender and it takes the most to stop him.

"It was good to experiment with that and see what that looked like, but as a forward line especially in that second half we worked really well together."

The Lions started the game the better of the two sides and they went into the first break up by 11 points after kicking three goals to one in the opening term.

However, the Demons hit back in the second and kicked the final three goals leading into halftime through Nate Mooney and Sam Macklan to take an eight-point lead into the sheds.

The game turned into an arm wrestle in the third and the only two goals came through Jethro Peck as the Lions again hit the lead heading into final quarter.

Goals to Tom Quinn, Jack McCaig and Hamblin early in the fourth term had the Lions looking like they were home as they raced out to a 23-point lead.

But the Demons hit back through Sam Stening and Tom Howard to bring the margin back to just two goals with around seven minutes to play.

A clever goal to Jack Powell then sealed the game for the Lions with just two minutes remaining on the clock.

After trailing at halftime, Martyn said he was really proud of how his side fought to get the game back on their terms in the second half.

"We mentioned at halftime that we hadn't really faced any adversity this year, so it was going to be a good test to see how we could respond," he said.

"We also discussed how their goals were coming from our mistakes, we had some poor kick ins and some poor turnovers and they were able to generate some scores from that.

"I thought we were a bit stagnate at times too, after we made those mistakes we went into our shell.

"We just spoke about being brave and it is round four so it is okay to make mistakes, but what I was really impressed with was the way we structured up.

"You could see we made it difficult for them to get through us at times, it was just cleaning up our skill execution and probably getting more space in our forward line too.

"Because at times it felt like it was very cramped, but that second half will be really good to watch back."

Full Time

GGGM 3.3 5.6 7.9 11.13 (79)

Collingullie Wagga 1.4 6.8 6.11 8.12 (60)

GOALS: GGGM: M.Hamblin 3, J.Powell 2, J Peck 2, J.McCaig 1, T.Quinn 1, Z.Burhop 1, T.Banuelos 1; Collingullie Wagga: S Stening 2, N.Mooney 2, S.Macklan 1, S.Jolliffe 1, T.Howard 1, J.Mooney 1

BEST: GGGM: Z.Burhop, T.Quinn, B.Walsh, J.Lander, T.Banuelos, J.McCaig; Collingullie Wagga: J.Pope, E.Perryman, J.Thorpe, T.Byrnes, K.Flack, R.Collins