Last year's wooden spooners snapped a five-match losing streak against their fiercest rivals, coming back from 31 points down late in the second term to claim a 13.4 (82) to 10.14 (74) win.

The scenes in the jubilant dressing room resembled a grand final victory and giant teenage ruckman Ed Dayman wrote his name into club history by playing the match after dislocating his shoulder in the second minute.

"I went to tackle (Mat) Grossman and it just popped out when I landed, but it slid back in," he said.

Dayman landed a free kick from 30m out to set up an 11-point break midway through the final term.

Grossman cut the margin to five points after receiving a 50m free kick with the Pies then landing three straight behinds, including a poster to the mercurial Ben Speight.

But with 22 seconds left, Stuart Booth ran into an open goal for the club's best win in years.

"The pleasing thing is the two games against Myrtleford and Wodonga Raiders (where they snatched thrilling late wins), I didn't think we knew how to get the job done," coach Daryn Cresswell said.

In the first half, Rovers couldn't handle midfielder Daniel Boyle, forward Josh Porter or ruckman-forward Zac Leitch.

Leitch had 15 touches, including two goals, as the visitors led by 25 points.

But the match then changed dramatically with the Hawks kicking seven goals to one.

"We pushed a couple back behind the footy and started to run the lines, which created an overlap and we looked after the ball better and structured up with a tall deep," Cresswell said.

Nick Murray was instrumental, finishing with 10 marks and 20 touches.

On-baller Callum McFadden lifted, Dayman was superb, Richmond VFL's Charlie Thompson kicked three goals, Will Nolan shut down Joe Richards, while Sam Carpenter was relentless.

Pies' defenders Michael Bordignon and Jamie Anderson were reliable, but coach Luke Morgan pointed to a lack of desire.

"It needs to be far greater and from next week it will be," he warned.

The match finished in controversy when a livid Boyle was trying desperately to get at a Rovers' player after the siren before being pushed away by team-mates. He later apologised.