And if they do, it will give the Lions an important buffer between them and a team that will rival them for a place in the finals towards the end of the year.

Lions’ coach Scott McMasters said his team’s two wins in the past three games had given them a boost, while they felt they were in with a shout when their game against Bonnie Doon was called off early due to a player injury.

“Obviously the player’s safety comes first,” McMasters said.

“But we’ve been playing well and we’ve been in pretty good form the past three weeks.

“We were kicking with the wind in the last quarter against Bonnie Dooon and had kicked the last seven goals.

“But there are no excuses — the last three weeks we’ve been close to full strength and that’s been a difference for us.”

Recruiting Peter Cook from Barnawartha has been a key difference too, the forward booting 19 goals in three appearances for the Lions.

“Having a key forward is pivotal to us performing better,” McMasters said.

“And we should go in unchanged — it’s always good to have continuity about the team, but you can always improve every- where, it doesn’t matter what stage of the year it is.

“We just have to concentrate on our game, and work on our defensive side when we don’t have the footy.

“Scoring goals isn’t an issue — we just have to make sure we’re on top of the defensive side of our game.”

But McMasters wasn’t expecting Tarrawingee to be a walkover.

“They’ve been a benchmark of the competition for a decade,” he said.