Kangaroo escapes serious injury, Saints march into bye on winning note

Hamish Cook injured his elbow in the Roos' 15.11 (101) to 6.4 (40) defeat to Hampden league reigning premier South Warrnambool at Hawkesdale Recreation Reserve on Saturday, April 20.

Cook went to hospital for scans after hurting himself in the second term.

Kangaroos coach Brad Thomas said they were unsure when he would play next with the club's next match on Thursday, April 25 against Portland at Hanlon Park.

"He had to get an x-ray done and in the end it was a hyper-extension on his elbow," he said.

"It didn't sound too good (when it happened) but it's probably the best result possible.

"It is good news. We were expecting the worst."

The Roos stuck with the Roosters for the first quarter when both teams kicked four goals before the latter's experience came to the fore.

"We wanted to try our developing systems against their established systems," Thomas said.

South Warrnambool, which played on Good Friday, is undefeated after four games and now has two weeks byes in a row to recover.

Koroit will enter its double bye - having also featured on Good Friday - with a 2-2 win-loss record after inflicting Camperdown's third straight defeat to start the 2024 season.

The Saints found themselves 18 points down at quarter-time but then kept the Magpies goalless for the next two terms to be in a commanding position at the final change on the back of Jack Block's impressive showing in the midfield.

They kicked six unanswered goals in the third quarter.

"You bring in Talor Byrne and Matty Bradley and it gives you two more scoring options as well," Koroit coach Chris McLaren said.

"Defensively we've been pretty good, we've kept sides to low scores in each of our four games, just hitting the scoreboard has been a bit of a battle but we spread that out really well (against Camperdown).

"It is going to be an ongoing thing for us, how we're going to find goals and score."

Camperdown coach Neville Swayn said the Pies' lapse in the middle two quarters, poor goal-kicking and the inside-50 differential were "disappointing".

But he believes his side can bounce back from its sluggish start to the season.

"They are the type of group that won't just lay down. I have full confidence the boys will turn it around, it's just a matter of how quickly they will do it."

Key defender Archie McBean (corked hip) is sore and is in doubt for round four.