For just the fourth time this season the Lions will come off a win, having defeated Ararat Eagles last weekend at Alexandra Oval.

The win at the weekend has come at a cost though as Josh McCartney, who kicked four goals last weekend, is set to miss tomorrow’s vital clash with a suspected fracture to his foot.

Along with McCartney, the Lions will also be without BJ Burton, Sam Harris and Adam Bullock who are unavailable.

Despite the shortage of numbers and the selection headache this week, coach Andrew Bach has remained confident and is looking forward to the challenge of playing a team towards the top of the ladder.

“You have to go into every game confident,” Bach said.

“A good start is really important. We fell down in patches against Ararat and we can’t afford to do that again this weekend.

“We came away with a win last weekend after some good passages of play.”

While the Lions will be under plenty of instructions from the coaching panel tomorrow, the main focus will be to keep it simple and stick to their structures.

In the past Great Western has fallen away from their structures which has seen their opposition kick goals in quick succession.

“If they get a run of goals they will be hard to stop,” Bach said.

“We need to be smart with our ball use especially when we go forward.”

Like the Lions Moyston Willaura have their fair share of injuries this season, but look to be finding their feet at the right time of the season.

Josh Bywater will return to their line up and with Luke Thomas, John Vanderwaal and Matthew Peel all eager to get out there, the Panthers will be a tough cover for the undermanned Lions.

Last time the two teams met at Willaura, Great Western put up a good fight for the first half, but then the Panthers took control to run away with a comfortable victory.

Bach said he was hopeful of playing the four quarters out tomorrow as his team strives to claim a big scalp in the competition.

“They have good players across the board,” Bach said.

“We need to shut every player down, we can’t just focus on one or two specifically.”

Great Western was struggling to find players to fill the voids tomorrow and with a lack of numbers in the reserves Bach said he had very few answers.

“We have plenty of time so we will just have to wait and see,” he said.

“We have had three under 16 players step up each week and they have done a fantastic job. A couple of reserves players have also been willing to help us out and I will be hoping for the same commitment tomorrow.”