The Eagles turned the tables on the side which defeated them by the same margin back in round three, holding on against an unrelenting Magpies outfit to win 47-46 at Bushfield.

With the game going down to the wire, Eagles co-coach Jody Roth admitted she struggled to watch the final minutes of the game.

“It was a high-intensity, skillful game of netball from both sides,” she said.

“It was a fantastic game to watch. We were just lucky that it fell our way.”

The Eagles led by four goals at quarter-time and three at the half, but the Magpies kept reeling them back in and took a one-goal advantage into the final term.

Roth lauded the efforts of some of the Eagles’ younger players, with Amelia Chow stepping onto an open grade court for the first time to cover for Skye Billings who came off with the blood rule, while bottom-aged 17 and under player Zoe Bussell “just smashed it”, creating handy turnovers.

An injury to leader Mandy Van Rooy couldn’t halt South Warrnambool’s momentum as it went on to defeat Terang Mortlake 50-35 on the road.

The Roosters coach went down with an ankle injury, prompting a reshuffling on the deck, but the visitors rose to the occasion, as they did a fortnight ago when Ally O’Connor went down in the second quarter against Koroit in their last start.

O’Connor, who could only play the first half on Saturday due to other commitments, stepped into centre, while Annie O’Brien went into wing attack, where Van Rooy had been playing, and Jessica Hardiman stepped into goal defence.

Van Rooy said after a sub-par start – the Roosters led by two goals at the first break, but put in an error-riddled term – they lifted with a big 18-6 second quarter to blow open the game.

The Bloods fought back in the third, narrowing the gap to eight goals, but the Roosters responded in the last with 14 goals to seven.

“Our persistence was really good,” Van Rooy said.

“Our second quarter was really good, we stuck to our guns; our defensive pressure really lifted.”

Meanwhile, Warrnambool broke away in the second half to defeat Portland 58-42 at Reid Oval.

The Blues led by two goals at the first change and three at the second, before piling on 17 goals to 11 in the third quarter and 17 to 10 in the last to secure the 16 goal victory.