The Roos led by a goal at half-time but, having seen Bill Hansen stretchered off with a knee injury in the first quarter, couldn't stay with the home side late on.

Daryn Cresswell's side had a measure of control by the final break and it was one-way traffic after that, with the Hawks kicking 8.0 in the last quarter to win by 18.11 (119) to 11.15 (81) in Shane Gaston's 200th game for the club.

"I was pleased with the way we adjusted and opened the game up in the second half," Cresswell said.

"We played very narrow and very skinny early but we changed lanes a bit more in the second half and got our runners into some space.

"That's our strength and that's how we got hold of the game, going a bit more direct into (Tom) Boyd.

"It was a great win.

"They've been up and about, playing some good footy, so to come out and do what we did was very important."

Boyd and Jack Gerrish finished with three goals apiece, while Alexander Marklew booted four as Rovers started to flex their muscles.

The impressive Jy Lane had three goals by half-time as Corowa, having lost Damien Wilson and Kaelan Bradtke to illness the day before the game, responded well to some early Hawks pressure.

But after Charlie Nastasi's goal at the start of the second half, Rovers kicked the next five goals with Boyd and Marklew both providing good marking targets as the home side gathered momentum.

Will Robinson pulled one back just before the siren to reduce the deficit at three-quarter-time to 13 points but any hopes of a Corowa comeback were quickly quashed.

By now, Rovers were having things all their own way and Regan Gorman's brilliant late kick from the boundary rubber-stamped a thoroughly convincing final term.

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"It was a game of two halves," Roos coach Peter German reflected.

"Our first half was really good, we were sharp, we made good decisions and defended really well.

"But errors became a bit costly and put us on the back foot a bit.

"They put our defenders under pressure and we started making some of those errors.

"We always knew our height was going to be an issue with no Kuschert or Bradtke so we've sometimes got to run the gauntlet a bit without a complete team.

"Maybe that was part of the problem in the second half.

"Our guys have had a solid seven weeks of football and losing a couple of games by a slender margin (to Albury and Yarrawonga), games we possibly could have won, takes its toll mentally."

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