Cerrone sits third in the goalkicking with 47 goals from 10 games, having been the Wombats’ main focus up forward for the third successive week as the back-to-back premier won its is ninth game of the season.
Lancaster kicked nine goals to two after leading by 21 points at half time and won the match 15.12 (102) to Dookie’s 5.4 (34).
Cerrone and his brother, Tannar (who kicked two goals), kicked all but four of the goals as they had support from returning left footed goalsneak Tim Strapp.
Zac Cerrone has now kicked 27 goals in the last three weeks, with only Murchison-Toolamba spearead James Lloyd (who is now only nine goals short of triple figures) and Shepparton East’s Jake Sutherland (who kicked 15 goals against Violet Town a week ago) ahead of him on the goalkicking table.
Lancaster sits second on the ladder, separated by percentage from Murchison-Toolamba which it drew with in round five, with six rounds of the home and away season remaining.
Dual premiership coach Tom Davies said Cerrone had played an incredible three weeks of football and was putting together a career best year.
“He has kicked a majority of those goals while playing in the midfield,” Davies said
Cerrone started in the midfield on Saturday, rotating occasionally into attack, and had four goals half time.
“He had a hard tag after half time, so we sent him deep forward at the start of the last and he kicked four last quarter goals, Davies said.
“He had a couple of set shot goals but most were on the run and a couple were around the corner under real pressure.”
Coby O’Neill had support in the ruck for the first time this season with the return of Ricky Thomson.
“Coby rucked for the first 10 minutes of each quarter and Rick rucked for five or 10 minutes before handing back the role to Coby,” Davies said.
Lancaster rested veteran Kyabram recruit Paul Newman, who has kicked eight goals in his three games since joining the Wombats.
Premiership utility Nick Ryan will come straight back into the team next week (after the July 6 general bye) after serving his 10 game suspension.
“He has done a large amount of work and is fit and ready to go. He has also been a regular senior player for a long time and we have missed his presence at centre half forward and as a ruck rotation,” Davies said.
He said O’Neill would continue to be the team’s primary ruckman and had done a great job to fill the role solo for the first nine games.
Cameron Simpson and Nick Kellow revelled in the wet conditions of Saturday’s game and are expected to be joined by Lachlan Boscarini post the bye weekend.
He hasn’t played since round five.
In the absence of the senior players Davies has had the luxury of blooding youngsters like Tommy Withall, who put in another solid outing after playing in the Under 18 match earlier in the day.
“He doesn’t look out of place playing senior footy,” Davies said.
Davies said he was happy with his team’s progress six weeks out from another finals series, despite having a few changes in the line-up - including his brother Luke.
Tom Davies played with the Swans in 2015-16 and his brother has also made an impact.
“I have watched Luke and the Swans 2-3 times this year. He played well the weeks I watched and has done some work on his one on one defending,” he said.
“It took him a little bit to settle into GV footy, but has found his feet now. He is playing as a half back and gets a match up most weeks.”
After the bye the Wombats face a finals-bound Avenel outfit and have testing games against Stanhope (fourth), Nagambie (sixth) and Shepparton East (third).
