The Cats survived the Lions' late fightback to claim a 13.9 (87) to 11.9 (75) round eight victory.

South Rovers outscored Allansford five goals to one in the final quarter.

Cats coach Ben Price said his side would learn plenty from that fourth quarter.

"I thought we didn't rotate enough early (in the fourth quarter) through the midfield," he said.

"We were out on our feet. So we started to make poor decisions mentally. Once you get fatigued like that, the opposition are able to take control of the game.

"Luckily enough, we'd done the hard work in the third quarter."

Allansford dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Lions seven goals to two.

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But Price said the Cats were focused on trying to finish matches strongly.

"You don't want to just play the game out and play to the (final) siren," he said. "We want to keep reinforcing that we need to be able to get the ball forward and hit the scoreboard."

Finishing matches has been a concern for the Cats since they lost to Panmure in round five.

During that encounter the Bulldogs came from 18 points down at three-quarter time to win by eight points.

Price reminded his troops of that result at the final break of the Lions match, but again they struggled to put a match away.

The Allansford mentor said his side's communication could have been better in the final stanza.

Despite this, Price was pleased with his team's scintillating third quarter. He said the Cats scoreboard pressure was important.

"When you're playing a team at a similar level to what we are, when you get two of three goals in a row, it really puts the pressure back on (the opposition)," he said.

Price said the win meant a lot to his Cats.

"Against a side, sitting where they were and where we were, it's probably worth eight (ladder points) to us," he said.

South Rovers coach Adam Matheson described the loss as a "very disappointing result" for his Lions.

"We just need to listen more and play our role more," he said. "They showed more endeavour, more intensity and more grunt.

"You don't have to be a good footballer to show those three qualities."

He was impressed by his team's final quarter fightback and wondered why it didn't play that well earlier.

"The last 15 minutes of the match, we took the game on in the way we wanted to play all day," he said. "Why did we wait until we were four goals down with 15 minutes to play to do that?"

Matheson said he would be asking for a response from his team at training this week.

The Lions were in trouble from the outset as key forward Corey McLaren withdrew before the match, with a knee complaint.

Dylan Cox was another forward missing from the team this week. Matheson said his side struggled across half-forward against the Cats.

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