The Lithgow Workies Wolves claimed their first win since September 6, 2015 by defeating the Blayney Bears 38-4 at the Tony Luchetti Showground on Sunday.

Jono Van Veen was the star with a first half hat-trick and younger brother Brendon was the supporting act with a double in the second half.

Related content:

The elder Van Veen said the victory was one to savour.

"It feels good, it's the first win in about 18 months for us so it feels good, very good," he said.

The unsung heroes of the show were the Workies forwards and five-eighth Van Veen gave credit where it was due.

"We did score a few tries but it was a team effort. I think everyone really dug deep today, there wasn't a bad player today.

"Once we got a roll-on through the middle we played off the back of that with quick play the balls and that gives us backs options to play with the ball so the forwards won the battle up the middle.

"With our forward pack, with Brendo [West] coming back with Stricko [Chris Rhodes] coming back, they get a roll-on and we play off the back of it which makes footy so much easier.”

Both sides struggled to complete their sets early with a string of forward passes and penalties disrupting play.

Workies were the first side to settle and began to dominate field position.

After 20 minutes the pressure told as Jono Van Veen dove over from dummy half to open the scoring.

Five minutes later the Workies five-eigth was in again after backrower Corey Wilmott made a break and drew the fullback to give Van Veen a free run to the try line.

More errors and penalties from Blayney continued to give the Wolves easy metres up the field and a try to Mitch Case as well as another to Van Veen made it 22-0 at the break.

The second half started horribly for the Bears as they put the ball out on the full from the kick-off.

It was the opposite story for the Wolves as they went in to score from the following set.

Brendon Van Veen claimed his first try diving over from close range and grabbed another on almost the same patch of grass four minutes later.

Joshua Jones made it 32-0 with the conversion from the sideline.

It took until the 52^nd minute for Blayney to get on the scoreboard as centre Josh William hit a hole on the end of a back-line play to run in and dot the ball over next to the posts.

Ten minutes later Lithgow’s Ben Picman put the final nail in the coffin as he received the ball from a quick break to score under the posts.

Tempers flared in the 73^rd minute as a scuffle broke out between the two sides. As a result Bears prop Travis Waninara was sent to the bin to watch the rest of the game from the sideline. 

Blayney captain-coach Will Ingram said the Wolves took advantage of his side’s mistakes.

"It was a tough game. We had our moments where we were in it and just the same as each week one things goes wrong and then a lot of other things go wrong really quickly and we just don't recover quick enough," he said.

The Bears are without a win this season and Ingram is unsure when it will come.

"We’re working really hard, we identify [areas to improve] and work hard but it still seems to let us down in the same areas week after week."

"I keep wracking my brain to try and figure it out and it's just not coming to us just yet."

One thing the captain-coach is trying to instil in his team is a positive attitude.

"When things start to go wrong working that little bit harder positively instead of just hanging our heads and letting the wave come over the top of us."

Workies claimed another strong win in first division 54-0 however ladies league tag fell to a red-hot Blayney side 48-4. 

LITHGOW WORKIES 38 (Jono Van Veen 3, Brendon Van Veen 2, Mitch Case and Ben Picman tries; Joshua Jones 5 goals) def BLAYNEY BEARS 4 (Josh William try)