Great Western had a poor start to the competition so a win after the interleague break was a must.

Despite winning, coach Nick Thomas wasn't overly pleased with how they got there.

"We are happy to be back on the winner's list," Thomas said.

"I'm not happy with how we got the win, but it's still four points."

The first quarter finished evenly poised with Woorndoo-Mortlake leading by just one point.

Great Western had controlled most of the play, but had lapses allowing Woorndoo-Mortlake to remain in the contest.

"We had patches where we just weren't disciplined enough, which was really frustrating," Thomas said.

In the second term Great Western broke away kicking consecutive goals early, before a second lapse kicked in, allowing Woorndoo-Mortlake to finish the quarter better.

"It happened all day, we would kick three or four goals, then we would relax and they would kick three or four," Thomas said.

"We made it really hard for ourselves because we were fighting to get the momentum back all the time."

Great Western's six goals to Woorndoo-Mortlake's three in the third quarter helped steady the ship, but the game certainly wasn't over.

The Lions lead of 27 points was challenged unsuccessfully, with Great Western holding on to win by 11 points in the end.

Thomas described the game as scrappy, with a lot of congested ball.

"It probably wasn't the best game to watch," he said.

"There wasn't much of the game that was free flowing, a couple of passages if that."

Nathan Ross had a terrific game returning to the senior line up.

Ross started in the forward line where he applied plenty of pressure, before heading down back and providing the same intensity.

Nathan Ringin was also impressive in his first senior game at the club.

Benjamin Birch-Burton kicked five goals to be one of Great Westerns better players.

The final score was Great Western 18.14.122 to Woorndoo-Mortlake 17.9.111.