WHOROULY coach Brendan Roche says star forward Daniel West is almost certain to make his long-awaited senior return next week after another brilliant performance in the reserves on Saturday.
While the Lions' seniors had a comfortable 59-point win over Bright, West starred in the earlier match with 10 goals in a best on ground performance.
After a solid first up performance against Tatong last week, Roche said West had done everything possible to earn a call-up for the match against Swanpool.
"We'll look to bring Westy in next week," he said.
"He's been going well and moving really well.
"It's surprising in a way that he is moving well but he's done his rehab to a tee so he's been training five days a week.
"Westy is reaping the rewards."
Following West's starring role in the reserves win, Whorouly did what it had to do against Bright and consolidated second spot on the ladder.
With Trevor Vyner, Tom Scullie, Luke Elkington and Christian Jackson all late withdrawals, the Lions were slow to get out of the blocks.
But a five-goal second quarter saw them open up a 26-point lead at the main change before kicking 10 goals to five in the second half to run out winners 17.12 (114) to 8.7 (55).
Richie Leahy took his season tally to 109 after slotting another nine goals while Liam Harrington, Kyle Archibald and Lance Warr also performed exceptionally well.
"It was a real danger game for us and we spoke about that during the week," Roche said.
"We went into the match a bit depleted but the guys that came up did a really good job."
Roche said after the withdrawals of four players before the game, the likes of Harrington, Leahy and Archibald led the way and ensured the Lions wouldn't fall off the pace.
"Liam's had a really good month of footy he's up and about at the moment," he said.
"He's giving us plenty of drive from that wing and he's also kicking a few goals as well."
"Richie kicked 9.0 so he's got his eye in and Kyle carried a fair bit of the workload and did a great job."
In other matches, Milawa demolished Bonnie Doon by 140 points, Swanpool hammered archrival Goorambat by 53 points, Tarrawingee eased past Tatong by 57 points and Benalla smashed Glenrowan by 261 points.
By - JEREMY WILSON.
www.nenews.com.au
CUT OFF: Bright defender Sean McGregor gets back courageously to stop Whorouly's Riche Leahy (47) from taking a mark.
PHOTO: Marc Bongers
Last Modified on 25/07/2012 16:55