The Lions made light work of Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes in the top of the table showdown, thrashing a hapless Goannas outfit 16.14 (110) to 1.9 (15) in front of a big crowd at Ganmain Sportsground.

It was supposed to be a clash of the titans, the two best teams from last year's unfinished season, both undefeated after two rounds, but only one team delivered.

GGGM, who began with the breeze, started strongly but never relented. They led by 29 points at quarter-time and then extended the margin against the breeze to be 50 points up at the main break.

The show went on in the second half, stretching the lead to 96 points at three-quarter time.

MCUE brought up their first and only goal midway through the final term, as they finally stemmed the tide but the sting had well and truly gone out of the contest.

GGGM coach Sam Martyn was rapt to deliver such a dominant four-quarter effort in a big game.

"Extremely happy. We were really pleased with the product we put on display today," Martyn said.

"We were probably just as shocked with the scoreline as anyone and we're under no illusions, they had a few key really players out, but we can only play who's in front of us and our mentality was just to display our brand of footy and try and play a consistent four quarter game, which is what we did.

"We're really pleased with the outcome and to take the four points in that manner is really great for the club."

The Lions, naturally, had winners all over the ground.

Mitch Taylor was outstanding in a number of roles and finished with three goals. Michael Rothnie's pressure was brilliant, Ben Walsh controlled the air across half-back, while Matt Hamblin and Tom Anderson were very good through the midfield.

The Lions also managed to kick the winning score without George Alexander, who came off in the second quarter with a chest complaint.

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Martyn labelled his team's pressure as the most important factor behind their performance.

"Definitely our focus is our pressure. If we can apply that everything unfolds," he said.

"If we're really hard at the contest, and to our midfielders credit, they got it on their terms, they were really proactive and they gained ascendancy, and when players are doing those selfless acts, it becomes infectious and everyone wants to come apart of it.

"Our game and our ball movement, everything else, came on the back of that hard work."

Too add injury to insult, the Goannas lost Bailey Jones to a suspected ACL injury. Coach Jeremy Rowe also snapped his Achilles in reserve grade.

Tim Smith was MCUE's best on a dirty day.

Full-time

GANMAIN-GGM (110)

5.2 8.7 15.12 16.14

MANGOPLAH-CUE (15)

0.3 0.5 0.6 1.9

Goals: (GGGM) M Taylor 3, K Watts 3, M Hamblin 3, D Foley 2, T Anderson, L Parker, M Rothnie, J McCaig, J Olsson; (MCUE) D Arthur.

Best: (GGGM) M Hamblin, M Rothnie, B Walsh, K Mahon, J Olsson, L Parker; (MCUE) T Smith, H Collins, T Cohalan, J Scott, R Turnbull, M Collins.

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