Allansford mentor Tim Nowell concedes his group will need to lift another gear in the absence of one of its gun recruits for the majority of the Warrnambool and District league season.
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The Cats coach confirmed distinguished former Warrnambool player Bradley Bull would miss a significant chunk of the remainder of the season after sustaining a fracture in his tibia and damage to his MCL.
The injury came late in the first quarter of the loss against Russells Creek in a contest with Bull playing no further part in the match.
"He's not too doing bad considering, we're waiting on the results of some more scans to see if there's any more damage," he said.
"We won't see him back on the footy field for at least the next six weeks at a minimum I wouldn't have thought."
Nowell said it was up to others on the field to step up to the plate and help fill the void.
"He's one of a kind, you're never going to really be able to replace Brad Bull," he said.
"What I said to the boys at training (on Tuesday) was it's now up to them to step up. They've seen what Brad has brought across his first eight rounds, we need them to now take another step with their leadership.
"We've still got Brad Williams there and he's been terrific for us with his leadership, and Brad (Bull) obviously won't be lost to us while he's out. He'll be on the bench with us and part of his role is to mentor the young lads when they come on and off the ground.
"As disappointing as it is to lose him and the way he goes about it on the field and the way he attacks the footy, that leadership he brings will still be there, it'll just be from the sidelines.
"The boys will still feel his presence but everyone needs to step up. We're in a pretty strong position for this time of the year compared to last year and a lot of that does come down to our younger lads who have stepped up and are playing really good football."
The Cats face Kolora-Noorat in a blockbuster clash away from home on Saturday with Nowell confident his group would respond from the loss to Russells Creek
"We didn't play our best and that's some of the inconsistency we've seen with the group at times, so we're looking forward to the response," he said.
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