Undefeated Cats humming ahead of clash with 'side to beat'

The undefeated Cats are absolutely humming after dismantling South Rovers 32.28 (220) to 1.3 (9) on Saturday, May 11 - the side's sixth win from as many games in the Warrnambool and District league season.

But Nowell knows his side will face its toughest test yet in just under a week's time, when it hosts the two-time reigning premier.

"They've always had the wood over us a little bit so we don't know what to expect, they won't know what to expect," he told The Standard.

"So next Saturday we'll turn up with the same attitude we've brought to each game this year and the result will be the result.

"I know we might be sitting on top of the ladder but they're definitely the side to beat. Hopefully it's a really good game and we'll see what happens."

Nowell was pleased with his side's four-quarter performance against the Lions, which saw it kick eight goals or more in three-of-four quarters.

He noted that despite the one-sided scoreline, the Lions still made his side work extremely hard and applied plenty of pressure around the contest.

Competition-leading goal-kicker Robbie Hare had a day to remember for the Cats, booting 15 majors while teammate Brad Williams contributed five.

Hare has now kicked 44 goals from just six games this year.

There were 11 different goal-kickers for the Cats which pleased Nowell, who is wary of the side becoming over-reliant on Hare.

"To see some of these young lads stepping up and kicking goals (was great) and we put a bit of focus into that yesterday," he said.

"Yes Rob's a good focal point for us and when Rob's on he's dangerous and he's hard for anyone to stop but we need multiple goal-kickers week-in week-out if we want to continue to stay in the top-five. We can't just rely on Rob week-in-week out."