A see-sawing battle in miserable conditions at North Dalton Park, saw the Tigers trail by a point at three-quarter time, before booting two goals to one in the term to claim an 8.6 (54) to 7.4 (46) victory. It was just Northern Districts' second win of the season, and Forsyth believes it will give them plenty of confidence.

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"Our brief analysis is that we're a much quicker team than we've been in the past, and don't have a lot of size, so we're more of a dry-track team,'' he said.

''They were probably better at ground level, they scrapped well and got first use of the ball. But our tackling was sensational for the four quarters, so we were able to turn the ball around quite often and get it going the other way.

"I think we showed more desperation as the game went on. They were probably more physical, which probably worked in our favour because some poor discipline on their part at times got us free kicks or kicks down field, so we were able to get some territory. Overall, we couldn't be happier.

"Our message before the game was 'if we win this, we're two games clear of them [Lions]'. And the guys responded. While it wasn't pretty, they were all committed to the cause."

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Conversely, Lions coach William Judd was left frustrated by Saturday's missed opportunity.

"It was a bit of a slog, with the weather and the ground. But both teams were up for the fight, there was lots of contested footy all the way around the ground. Obviously we didn't come away with the win, but hopefully people can see that we're building and we're getting close to some reward," Judd said.

"I felt like we started to get a bit more of a run towards the end of the third quarter and, coming in at three-quarter time, I thought we were a real hot chance. And no-one really knew who was going to win until about two minutes to go when they kicked a goal to put them a goal up. Other than that, there was only a goal in it for the whole game. So it hurt, the boys were pretty upset with the result, and we thought we were a chance until a couple of minutes to go.

"But I think the biggest positive is that we still have a fair few players unavailable, but those boys who are coming in and filling those holes are giving their absolute best - and I can't fault their effort. Some of them have only played a handful of Premier Division games, and some have only played a handful of games of football. It was our ruckman's third game of football ever and he was one of our best players, so I can't fault the effort of the guys coming in and filling spots. It's fantastic."

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Lions versus Tigers was the only full game to proceed. Figtree versus Kiama was postponed, while the Suns/Bulldogs clash was called off at halftime.

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