The Saints were nine points down after a first half McLaren described as “embarrassing”, but ground their way back into the contest in the third quarter before booting five goals to one in the last to win 8.13 (61) to 7.11 (53) at Victoria Park.

“Our first half was as poor as we’ve played in years. It was awful,” he said.

“We were getting absolutely clobbered in stoppages – we might’ve been 10-plus down.

“We were unaccountable, we weren’t working very hard.”

But the Saints made some positional changes in the second half – including moving Dallas Mooney back and also sending on-baller Brett Harrington into defence – and McLaren challenged his players to turn things around.

“We were able to grind ourselves out of what was looking like a really disappointing day,” he said. “A lot of teams wouldn’t have been able to get their way out of that and to their (the players’) credit, they just said, ‘We’re not going to accept that’.”

Warrnambool made better use of its opportunities in the first half of the scrappy contest, kicking 4.4 to 2.7 and edged further in front in the third quarter, before a scintillating final term from the reigning premier.

McLaren said Liam Hoy and Damian O’Connor were “brilliant the whole game”, but they had few friends in the first half.

“If you’ve only got two players out of 21 (contributing), you know you’re not doing too well,” he said.

The Saints’ ever growing list of injuries and unavailabilities had a few more join its ranks, with Jayden Watson a late withdrawal as he pulled up sore on Saturday morning after copping a big knock to the back last week, while Taylor Mulraney became violently ill during the game and sat out the last quarter.

Warrnambool coach John Cook said some lapses in concentration late in the game and skill errors hurt his side as it coughed up a 14-point three-quarter-time lead, which was significant in the low-scoring contest.

“As a spectacle goes, there wasn’t much free-flowing play, but that’s the way we’ve got to play,” he said.

“They started off pretty well in the last quarter – got a goal in the first minute – and we probably just made some basic skill errors and some poor attempts at tackling as well.

“We’re disappointed with the result; we felt like we probably deserved to get closer to a win than we did.”

Cook lauded the efforts of defenders Aaron Robertson and Matthew Colbert, as well a Darcy Graham.

He said the Blues were “pretty happy” with their first three quarters, noting the players’ willingness to be hard around the contest and follow the game plan.