A VERY good crowd turned up in perfect weather conditions to watch the Mt Helena Lions face off against the Pickering Brook Hawks.

The Hawks were first to score a goal through Riley Thompson.

Unfortunately due to a knee injury he could take no further part in the game.

The Lions came back strongly with two goals kicked by Ryan Watters and Michael Hine.

Hamish Duncan had the ruck duties against the in-form Jackson Shilling.

The Hawks won several contests from the ruck duels but their forward moves were being cut off across their half forward line by Ryan Schwagereit and Brendon Agnew.

They kicked the ball back into the Lions attacking area, Michael Hine converted with an ugly floating flourbag punt, which raised laughter among his team mates.

The Lions went into the first break holding a 10-point lead.

Both teams had accuracy problems during the second quarter with only three goals between them from 14 shots.

Lions captain Charlie Read led by example with a lot of hard running, picking possessions around the ground.

Bo Read came out of his normal defensive role to offer some ruck relief.

This paid dividends as he may have found a new part time role.

Mitchell Johnson has changed ends in recent weeks and now finds himself as a focus up forward, after his 10 goal haul last week he found things a lot more difficult being subject to some tight checking.

The Lions backline functioned well repelling most of the Hawks’ forward entries.

Mt Helena went into the long break holding a 19 point lead.

The Hawks were put under pressure after the break.

The Lions had several forward entries and Ryan Watters picked up a couple of goals while Jess Cartwright also joined in for one of his own.

Ben Bowness has found himself as playing coach over recent weeks due to a string of injuries.

He worked hard around the midfield offering his team forward drive.

Jon Vecchio managed to deliver the ball forward where Jackson Shilling had found space to mark and kick accurately for a much-needed goal.

Mt Helena had opened up a 43-point lead heading into the last quarter and this proved far too big a lead for the Hawks to overcome with the Lions ending up winners by 53 points.

Ryan Watters finished the game with six goals while also passing the ball off to teammates in better scoring positions.

The game ended with the Lions winning 14.17 (101) to the Hawks’ 6.12 (48).