But Jay Blackberry was up to the task.

While Dylan Riley's latest bag pushed him 10 goals clear in the Hudson Medal standings, his midfield teammate's all-round contribution earned him three votes in Launceston's 96-point demolition of Kingborough on Sunday.

Described as "by far our best" by coach Mitch Thorp, Blackberry amassed 27 disposals and 10 tackles along with three sublime goals, two from long range.

"Unbelievably classy," was Thorp's assessment.

"He's a superstar. Leader of the club, so silky, kicked two goals breaking from 50 and another one from a stoppage inside 50 so just led from the front."

Returning from the injury he picked up in the round five win over North Hobart, Thorp was delighted with the quantity as well as quality his side boasts in the middle.

"Jobi Harper obviously got tagged fairly heavily and it's nice to have some density in our midfielders with Blackberry plus Fletcher Seymour who had 27 disposals himself."

With just a month of the abridged competition remaining, Thorp believes his side are the closest challengers to perennial premiers North who edged last week's derby by three goals.

"The ladder suggests that and the fact that we've actually beaten North Launceston and had a pretty competitive performance against them on Wednesday, so I think we're around the mark."

After 8 rounds