So used to reflecting on a loss, Kelly finally had a win to talk about after the Swans turned the derby tide against the Tamworth Kangaroos with a nail-biting 11.13-79 to 10.15-75 AFL North West competition win. 

Kelly struggled for the words to describe how he was feeling but labelled the win his finest coaching moment and one of the best moments he’s enjoyed in the sport. Up there with winning premierships in South Australia and with the Swans.

“When you go hug your son when you’ve won a game that’s pretty special,” he said.

He hasn’t been able to do that for at least a-year-a-half.

That’s how long it has been since the Swans have won and the players soaked up every moment.

“I’ve won a couple of grand finals with the Swans. The way they sung the song was the best I’ve ever heard. It was loud. They were pumped,” Kelly said.

He said it wouldn’t have mattered who it was that they beat, although the fact that it was the Kangaroos made it that bit sweeter.

They haven’t tasted victory over their rivals since September 5 2009.

There was a moment on Saturday when it looked like the Roos were going to inflict more pain on them.

After kicking the first three goals of the game and establishing a 7.6-48 to 3.5-23 lead at half-time, the Swans watched that whittled away to just four points by the final term with the Roos booting the last five goals of the third quarter.

Then with a couple of minutes to go, the Roos were awarded a free kick in the goal square and converted it to hit the front.

“I thought we can’t lose it from here,” Kelly said.

But the Swans managed to win the centre clearance and earn a free-kick of their own, which Chris Walker slotted for his fifth and most important goal of the game.

Kelly admitted he would have been devastated if they hadn’t been able to finish it of. He thought they played pretty well all day and were the better team. 

“It was just that third quarter where they had 10 minutes of really good footy,” he said.

Despite two losses to start the season Kelly sensed they were building towards something. Against Inverell they were good and likewise the New England Nomads, but they couldn’t kick the goals.

“Today everything seemed to click. A lot of times when we went forward, there was a good chance we were going to get a goal,” he said.

“The boys just ran. The support was good. And when the Roos had the ball the boys kept running back.”

The result is the fruition of a lot of hard work.

“A lot of the boys are my son’s (Tom) mates. They were union or league boys and they’d come around home and watch it (AFL),” Kelly recalled.

“It’s been a long process to get them to know what’s going on.

“We’ve got a couple of older guys that have come back to help out.”

Kangaroos coach Tony Bishop lamented a poor start and some wayward kicking from his side but wasn’t taking anything away from the Swans.

“We just got outplayed,” he said.

“They just wanted it a bit more.”

“They were prepared to run harder, and in numbers and for longer.”

He felt the Swans were probably “a bit fitter and faster”, which did “annoy” him “given that’s what I trying to base our game on”.

“We did show some spirit to come back,” Bishop said.

“It could have gone either way. But full credit to them, it’s been a long time.”

And while he was disappointed with the way the Roos played and their attitude at the start of the game he was proud of the sportsmanship they showed.

Brad Rees led the scoring for the Roos with six goals while Adam Watson kicked three as he continues his transition from soccer.

It was a weekend for maiden wins with Narrabri Eagles also notching their first win for the season.

Todd Dunn booted six and Thomas Mackey and Daniel Hughes three as the Eagles romped to a 16.9-105 to 8.9-57 win over the visiting Moree Suns.

The New England Nomads forfeited to the Inverell Saints in the other game.