The Bloods mentor said the 14.12 (96) to 8.20 (68) triumph over Portland at Hanlon Oval on Saturday would spur on his side heading into the second half of the year.

“To come away with a five-goal win in Portland is a pretty good result and will give us a lot of belief,” Sargeant said.

“We knew we would get better as the year went on and we are just starting to see that there are some areas of the game where we’re starting to get better and better every week.”

Sargeant said his side responded positively to his pre-game focus. 

“We wanted 21 blokes to be even contributors over four quarter,” he said.

“We haven’t had that all year. We’ve had guys play well for a half and drop out of the game and some weeks we have some play good and some play bad all game, but we actually had 21 blokes really contribute, which was the most pleasing part.”

The second-year coach said a meeting between his leadership group and his coaching staff was a catalyst in the even contribution from his side on Saturday. 

“We had a player driven meeting and there was some positive and negative feedback given,” Sargeant said.

“The players really took it on board and they knew we haven’t been consistent every week and a lot of these blokes have played a lot of footy and they knew it had to change at some stage.”

Terang Mortlake leap-frog Portland into the top five and close in on South Warrnambool, who are a game clear.