The Cats put in a heartened performance against top-four side Russells Creek, but failed to find a way to win in the final quarter to fall to a 15-point loss.

Despite the result, Nowell said he was proud of his team's efforts on Saturday.

"Obviously bringing in so many boys at the start of the year, they are just starting to gel now and get some momentum," he said. "Last week we saw it and this week they took it to another level."

Trailing by 20 at the main break, the Cats fired up in the third to get back within two points of the Creekers at the final change.

"The last quarter we did things under pressure that we hadn't done all day, just those one or two percent things we weren't doing cleanly enough," Nowell said. "We had our opportunity to take it, the win, and we didn't."

He said the club was not where it wanted to be yet, but that work was beginning to show itself in games.

"(At half time) we told the group if we want to be in this game in the last, we've got to have a good third quarter and they rallied," he said. "They were playing as one, rather than a group of individuals.

"Taylan Jones came in for his first game and played really well. Bradley Edge, Cooper Day went back into our back line from the wing and did a fantastic job.

"Robbie Hare has been under an injury cloud the last three or four weeks. We told him if he played he had to stand tall and he did, he kicked seven goals."

Caleb Templeton starred for Russells Creek, kicking five majors, while Sam Alberts and Dylan Burns were also among coaches Danny Chatfield and Dylan Herbertson's best.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:

Now just one tap with our new app: Digital subscribers now have the convenience of faster news, right at your fingertips with The Standard: