Belief growing but Port Fairy Seagulls not the finished article

The rebuilding Seagulls fell seven goals short of finals fancy North Warrnambool Eagles this past Saturday - a positive step - but identified areas of improvement in review.

Taylor, in her second season as coach at Gardens Oval, said the close shave had given her players belief.

"I think the girls sort of see we can push teams who we think are likely to go deep into finals," she said.

"North's been touted as contenders and I think it just gives the girls in the squad confidence that we could push them.

"We made a lot of mistakes, even though we only lost by seven, and we threw a lot of balls away. It's a little concerning but in the same breath it's a positive in that we kept it to that kind of margin. It's a negative into a positive."

Port Fairy will on Saturday battle Terang Mortlake.

The Bloods were impressive in a two-goal triumph over Camperdown in round one.

Taylor was anticipating a hard-fought contest.

"I think we're very similar," she said. "They've got a lot of strengths in their attacking end and I think we're pretty keen to see how we match up on that. We're not in the position to be taking any team lightly so we definitely won't be."

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The former Hamilton Kangaroos player said Emily Forrest, an off-season recruit, was showing positive signs in the goal circle.

She said an injection of experience was helpful to the side's young talent in Tara Elliott, Tessa Allen and Liv Cautley.

"I think Em has brought a lot of confidence to that attacking end," Taylor said.

"We had a pretty young goal circle which was tough for the girls to be thrown in the deep end this past season. To bring Em in is great."

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