Hunter last played for the club in 2014 when it fielded one team in first grade. He was one of their most valuable players as he booted 112 goals for the season.

Saturday marked Hunter’s second game as an Outlaw and he showed he will be a weapon inside 50 for them again this year.

“That’s his second game back and I think he’s got back his timing pretty quick,” Outlaws coach Brett Archer said of Hunter.

“The good thing about that is I think he was a good target, but our delivery was good too. Looking at our disposals, it was a lot better than it had been the last couple of weeks, so that was promising.”

As Archer hinted, his men were strong in more than one area on Saturday at North Parkes Oval against the Panthers.

They were able to contain the Panthers’ strong combinations down the centre corridor and used the space of a big playing surface well.

The visitors booted four majors in the opening term to two from Parkes as they established a 13-point lead.

That was backed up with an even better second quarter, which gave the Outlaws a 10-3-63 to 6-2-38 advantage at the main break. From there they were not headed.

“It was a good win, as expected Parkes put a good side together and the field was nice and dry, it was nice to play on a dry track for a change,” Archer said.

“We had a weekend off last week and every game we’ve had the last three or four weeks has been in a bit of a swamp. It’s been very muddy and physical, but this game was a lot quicker. We got to use a lot more of our ball skills, quick passes and running.

“We did stretch the ball and get it wide – North Parkes Oval is a pretty big oval actually, a lot of open space out wide. We played a contest up the middle too, we took it to them.

“We were pretty strong across the field actually. We have got a good midfield, but we are pretty strong across the half forward line too.”

As well as Hunter’s efforts at full forward, Casey White and Kieran Ball impressed Archer as they returned for their first game since June 18.

White booted three goals and Ball finished with a major as well, while Peter Grundy, Matt Archer, Cameron Richards and Bill Watterson also got on the scoresheet.

The win was the Outlaws’ 11^th from 12 games this season and keeps them at the top of the ladder, four points clear of Cowra.

This Saturday the Outlaws will do battle with the Rebels.