After scores were all tied up at half-time Kyneton booted five third quarter majors to slip out to a 13-point advantage at the last change.

Deep forward Rhys Magin (five goals for the day) and Ryan Pretty (four) were tough for the Bloods to match up on in the last line of defence, but equally South had players in attack in Brock Harvey and Alex Smith who contributed six majors between them.

In the end it was pacy South midfielder Oscar White who snapped the final goal of the match at the 23-minute mark to seal the four premiership points for the Bloods.

South Bendigo held on through the final few minutes, despite a forward thrust by the Tigers' James Gaff, to win 13.12 (90) to 13.9 (87) and cement their Top Five position.

The first half was nip and tuck the whole way with first one side on top, then the other.

Pretty showed he was going to be hard to counter as he nailed two goals, the first from a long shot from the scoreboard flank.

Harvey and Smith replied for South, with Smith marking a long bomb from Will Keck on the town end boundary line.

Tigers midfielder Andrew Beckerley drilled a great pass to the diving Magin who opened his match-high goalkicking stint with an accurate set shot.

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It was goal-for-goal from the midpoint in the second quarter after the Bloods had sneaked out to a 20-point advantage.

Then the Tigers bounced back. With midfielders Beckerley and Dean Bartrop supplying the drive Pretty nailed a 50m set shot, Guy Dickson got another while Magin, who was on his own in the town end goal square, collected the rolling ball and ran into an open goal.

South's Smith had drilled his third for the day after an earlier major to Michael Herlihy so when the half-time siren rang out scores were level on 7.5 (47) apiece.

The Tigers got on top in the third term adding five majors to South's three but it was nip and tuck for the first half of the term.

Eventually majors to Cameron Wallace and Pretty, as time-on loomed, edged the Tigers out to the biggest margin in the match, setting up what turned out to be a great last quarter.

An early final term major to the dangerous Magin, from a Dickson pass, extended Kyneton's lead but Will Keck's goal started South's run which led to White's match-winning snap.

Bloods' coach Nathan Horbury, who played after overcoming a rib injury, said the team spoke about their fitness levels at the last break.

"We mentioned that we believe, as a team, we can win in any situation and, considering it turned out to be sort of like an eight-point game, our last quarter was good."

Horbury said he'd moved former Ron Best medallist Kaiden Antonowicz, who was kept goalless, to a half-back flank at one stage to get him into the action.

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