After Brett McKerlie turned the clock back with some dazzling footwork, uncanny vision and pin-point delivery by foot, Warren was left with a 30 metre kick on a slight angle on the far side.

If he missed, the Lions would have won by a point and best-on-ground would probably have gone to utility Chris Marsland of the Proprietary/Risdon combine.

As it was Warren showed all the class we have come to know and respect and with great mental toughness, he calmly slotted the four-point match-winner, two-premiership point stealer and the best-on-ground votes.

His four goals for the game were pivotal to the win but his leadership in moving himself onto Tom Harmer late in the first term to me was the crucial moment.

In the opening stanza, the Lions ran amok making the Augusta Terrace end look as though it was downhill in slamming on six goals to one with Harmer contributing four of them.

Such was Harmer’s one-man wrecking machine job on the West defence it forced Warren to take things into his own hands.

At 28 points down, the Hawks responded in the second term with six of their own goals through Warren and debutant small-forward Corey Jonas to lead by five points.

In the third quarter eleven goals were shared between the two sides with the Hawks clinging to a two-point advantage going into the last salvo.

In the final 20 minutes, Jordan Warren was in the middle with Dadleh, Lukich and Scharenberg in ruck.

The Hawks started the best adding a point and a goal before the Lions replied in kind as Ley slotted his first.

The blue and gold then seemed to step up and looked for much of the period as if they were going to run away with it.

Up forward Sawyer played the classic big man role bringing the ball to ground and releasing players when he was not marking it as Marsland was everywhere at once.

The Lions led by one point with 14 minutes to go as West looked as if they had spent all their petrol tickets.