The Lions led 26-10 at half-time and kept the Bears at bay for most of the second half.

Sean Nean, Mitch Doring, Matt Nean, Brendan Hunt and Ben Jarvis all crossed in the first half while Chris Hunt was the only Lion to score a try in the second half as the Bears roared back into the game.

Hunt’s try was crucial.

West had looked to be tiring and a big Bear bomb went high midway through the half.

Unfortunately for North, they couldn’t make a grab.

Instead West’s Sean Nean was able to catch it.

“I looked up, no one in front of me and took off,” Nean said.

“I wasn’t thinking, just wanted to help the boys out – got to do something  because we were were doing it tough.”

He then raced 60m, breaking three or four tackles to take his side from the “back foot to the front foot”.

Two tackles later, Hunt dived across and it was 32-18.

However, North wasn’t finished with and, when Brad Marshall’s centre kick ricocheted off a West body, it bounced perfectly for little winger AJ Burns to run onto and race away to score his second of the day.

Down 32-24, the Bears had about 10 minutes left but couldn’t produce any pressure, with a couple of dropped balls stalling their charge.

They were just too good for us,” North coach Brad McManus said.

“We dropped too much ball today.

“But we have a great bunch of young blokes  here.

“Maybe a little bit of that inexperience hurt us today but we’ve had a good run.

“And it was a good effort.”

The Bears had some standouts.

 Prop Marshall Barker, second-rower Shane Wadwell and winger Callum Hayne all tested the West defence.

West Lions prop Chris Vidler was named man of the match with another line-busting game.

He, Scott Rolls and Shane Salvadore provided the West ball players with a great platform with some charging runs.

“They were outstanding,”  skipper Brendan Hunt said.

“Rolls did a great job coming back from injury, Vids was great and Shane helped us set a platform for Matty, Chris Mitch and me.”

Matt Nean had a big hand in the first two tries, putting up a bomb in the second minute for his brother to grab and score and then catching the North defence napping down the blind before arrowing a long pass back inside for Mitch Doring to race over untouched.

“It’s the first time we’ve had size against Norths this year,” West coach Tony La Chiusa said.

“We wanted to keep it simple and give the little blokes a platform. They did that and Mitch, Matty, Brendo and Chris (Hunt) did the rest.”

La Chiusa said his side had started the season slowly but timed its run perfectly.

“A few of them carried injuries into this game too. Rolls, Shaughn Stevenson shouldn’t have played, Beato and Chris Hunt.

“Matty Nean showed his class again. Vids was great and the young blokes like Latrell, Mitch, Janson and Ben Jarvis went well.

“They’re great kids and I hope they kick on for West.”