The Lions sit sixth on the ladder, but are only one win ahead of Tallygaroopna with seven rounds of the home and away season remaining.
In those seven weeks they have top team Murchison-Toolamba twice (in rounds 11 and 14), then face reigning premier Lancaster for the second time this season in round 15 and have fifth-ranked Nagambie for his weekend.
Lovison said it was probably the hardest draw of any team inside the top six and he was preparing accordingly.
“We probably have the hardest draw out of everyone,’’ he said.
“We will keep going in the direction we are going. Our goal at the start of the year was to knock off a top four team, so we still have a few chances to do just that.”
On Saturday Lovison played most of his trump cards in attack, returning ruckman Daniel Flynn, last season's leading goal-kicker Tom Rennie and Tyson McKenzie all multiple goal-kickers.
Stanhope burst out of the blocks against Rushworth, kicking six goals to none to lead by 36 points at the first change.
Rushworth responded by kicking to the scoring end and cutting the half-time margin back to 14 points.
Stanhope's lead was 15 points at three-quarter time before seven final-quarter games gave it a 61-point win.
Rushworth kicked one goal in the final term and Stanhope won 17.16 (118) to 8.9 (57).
Flynn kicked five goals, Rennie four and McKenzie three as Daniel Maher allowed the tall trio to remain targets in attack for the entire four quarters.
Flynn, who had spent three weeks on the sidelines, pinch hit in the ruck and McKenzie also spent time on the ball.
Maher was among the prime ball movers for his team, his second and third efforts earning praise from his coach.
Lovison working with co-captain Jack Donnell played half-back and Jack Young was another player to have a strong defensive aspect to his game.
Lovison said his team had dropped off in the second quarter when Rushworth was on top in the midfield.
Winger Luke Donnell kicked two goals, as did Anthony Huismann.
· Stanhope reserves locked in 23 goals and won their match by 136 points on the back of 11 goals from Layne Baker.
Baker now has 26 goals from his five reserve grade games, having played the first four games in the seniors.
Baker is at his third KDL club, having played with Rushworth and Girgarre.
Stanhope sits fourth on the ladder, but faces top team Murchison-Toolamba twice in the run to the line.
Matthew and Brad Canny supported the star forward by kicking five goals between them and Daniel Brock was another star.
· Stanhope played Longwood in the under-18 competition on Saturday at Stanhope, winning by 12 points on the back of four goals from James Hipwell.
Kurtis Seabrook and Zacob Cairns were the other stars for the Lions’ underage team. It now has two wins from eight games.
Tough going for Dogs
Jake Gascoyne’s second bag of goals for the season wasn’t enough to influence a Merrigum comeback after the Bulldogs were slow out of the blocks against Avenel on Saturday.
Gascoyne kicked five in the loss and now has kicked 25 goals in nine games.
He has become the focus of the Merrigum midfield in the absence of Matt Wild.
Wild kicked 18 goals in the opening seven rounds, but hasn’t played the past two games.
Damon Zampaglione was the only other multiple goal-kicker, with two.
Avenel kicked six goals from 12 scoring shots in the opening term and by half-time had peppered the goals on 20 occasions – kicking 10.10 to lead by 44 points.
Merrigum, with Gascoyne at the forefront, kicked five second-half goals – to Avenel’s six – eventually losing the game by 56 points, 16.19 (115) to 9.5 (59).
Midfielders Brayden Hall, Brad Taylor and Shelby Ludlow-Lambrick were the Bulldogs’ best players, along with captain Zak Parkinson.
Merrigum sits eighth on the ladder with seven rounds remaining, three games outside the top six.
It has bottom team Undera, seventh-ranked Tallygaroopna and sixth-placed Stanhope – all games it will be expecting to be competitive in – before fronting up against third-ranked Shepparton East.
To finish the season it has a second game against fourth-ranked Avenel, then more winnable games against Rushworth and Nagambie.
