The Eagles’ one-goal win, while pleasing Roth, underlined a key area for improvement.

“It’s the second week in a row we’ve really brought it home,” Roth said after the 29-28 triumph.

“It’s not good enough we leave it until the last quarter.

“South led the whole game. We have to put four quarters in.”

The Eagles trailed by four goals at three-quarter-time but they produced an 11-6 final term to snatch the win.

“That’s what we need to do every quarter,” Roth said.

“We need four quarters like that. You would like to be scoring 10 goals every quarter.” She said her team was yet to hit peak form.

“It’s about gelling on the court.

“We are building the trust in each other. But at the moment we are not taking the first option and holding it too long.”

Roth predicted before the match defenders would be the key players. Goal defence Jordyn Billings and goal keeper Rachel Ryan were decisive in the contest.

The Eagles have been trialling a new-look attacking set up following the departure of premiership captain Laura Blackburn. On Saturday Annie Blackburn and Sophie Chow took the key attacking spots and Roth said the pair had combined well.

South Warrnambool coach Susan Pettigrew was proud of her young team’s effort, leading all game until the final seconds.

“They played really well,” she said.

Pettigrew was forced to reshuffle her line-up with goal attack Leah Kermeen unavailable. Midcourter Darcy Wilson went into goals and regular defender Aly O’Connor moved into wing attack.

“They were really good but they just ran out of legs,” she said.

“It was an education. You need to be able to play four quarters. Lesson learnt.

“North rotated their players every quarter and had a different centre every quarter. They had fresh legs and at the end of the day we ran out of steam.”

South named centre Olivia Niddrie and defender Bridget Smith as its best.