After the Wombats two major opponents to a third straight premiership had played out a draw on Saturday, Lancaster dominated Undera on Sunday with a 12-goal second term and led by 121 points at half time.
Cerrone took his tally of goals to 62 for the season, having come off the ground injured a week earlier in the win against Avenel.
His bag of 14 almost overshadowed the 100th goal of the year to Murchison-Toolamba full forward James Lloyd. Cerrone is now second only to Lloyd on the goalkicking table.
After Murchison-Toolamba played its second draw of the season the Wombats sit two points clear on the top of the ladder with four games remaining. Murchison-Toolamba and Lancaster drew 71-all in round five and then the Grasshoppers tied with third-ranked Shepparton East 60-all on Saturday.
While Cerrone’s massive haul was the headline maker, it was the appearance of another Kyabram GVL premiership hero in the Wombats colours that took everyone by surprise.
Chris Atkins, a highly decorated veteran of the GVL competition, kicked four goals in what is expected to be the first of two appearances for the Wombats. He spent much of the game alongside long time teammate Paul Newman.
Not to be left in the shadows Newman kicked nine goals of his own, taking his tally of goals to 21 from his five games in the blue and yellow.
According to PlayHQ the last time Atkins played was with Sunshine in the Western football league. He played with the club from 2017-2021 after playing nine games of the 2016 season with Kyabram.
He has strong family connections to the Lancaster club, Wombats coach Tom Davies explaining the association was not long term.
“Afro spent a lot of his pre-playing days at Lanky, but never played a senior game here. The opportunity came up for him to play a game and he was keen,” Davies said.
“He won’t qualify for finals, but may have another run before the year is out.”
Lancaster’s 36.19 (235) to 0.1 (1) win came despite the absence of premiership hero Cam Simpson, along with Kyle Kydd, Nick Kellow and Ricky Thomson.
Kellow hadn’t missed a game until the weekend, while Thomson had played the last two games before taking the weekend off from football.
Kydd had also played all 11 games before Sunday’s match against Undera, while another premiership star Nick McAuliffe also took the weekend off.
Coming into the team were teenagers Declan Hallett and Tom Withall, who were not born when Atkins and Newman were in their prime with the Bombers.
“We had five changes from the previous week, but it gave us a chance to give the young blokes another run,” Davies said.
Another great sign for the Wombats was the six goal haul of Morrie Serra, in just his second game back from injury. Serra was hurt in the round one win against Stanhope and did not return until round 11.
He kicked 20 goals last season and already has eight from his two return games.
Lancaster will have a big say in who makes the finals this season. It has Tallygaroopna this weekend, the club which is challenging Nagambie and Stanhope for a spot inside the top six, then it faces Nagambie (also hoping to keep its place in the six) and Stanhope in successive weeks.
The final home and away game is against the powerful Shepparton East.
Captain Charlie Mclay, who started the season as the go-to target in attack for the Wombats, was best on ground in a midfield role.
“He has moved back up the ground after playing an important role for us up forward to start the year. His ball use through the midfield is elite and he will play the rest of the year there,” Davies said.
– One goal in three quarters of football was never going to cut it against a top six Kyabram District League team and Girgarre suffered a 55-point loss as a result.
The Kangaroos were strong defensively for the first half, allowing Avenel just five first half goals. They trailed by 23 points at the long break, but seven goals to two after half time more than doubled that margin.
Steve Phillips kicked two of the Kangaroos three goals, the other coming from Leighton Ironside as defenders Joe Jackson and Harry Browning-Briese did their best to stem the tide,.
Ruckman Byron Dryden did his hopes of winning a club best and fairest no harm with another tireless display, while Josh Temple, Kyle McLeod and Brock Peirce were again in the best players for the Kangaroos.
There is some respite this week for the team as they face bottom-ranked Undera and then ninth-ranked Rushworth the following weekend.
