WHO IS WORTHY?
Six in the mix for end-of-season double chance
SEVEN rounds into the season and a clear divide is emerging on the BFL ladder.
Barwon Heads remains undefeated, having notched wins against both of last year’s grand finalists — Torquay and Geelong Amateur — as well as fellow members of the current top-five Ocean Grove and Queenscliff.
The Seagulls are clearly the benchmark side of the competition and deserve the title of premiership favourites.
At the opposite end of the table, Portarlington, Newcomb and Drysdale have one win apiece and, with relegation looming, appear to be in a fight for just one spot in next year’s competition.
But it is the mix in-between the Seagulls and the league’s cellar dwellers that is most fascinating.
Too often in recent years there have been five really good teams and then a mixed batch of also-rans and easybeats in the BFL.
This season, though, there are six clubs that could easily claim to be challengers for the top three, with Anglesea, Ocean Grove, Geelong Amateur, Queenscliff, Modewarre and Torquay all showing glimpses of being worthy of a double chance come the end of the year.
It is what makes the results of games like Saturday’s clash between the Grubbers and the Coutas, as well as Ammos and the Warriors, so vital.
Modewarre would have joined Ammos and Queenscliff on 16 points had it won at Queens Park on Saturday. Instead it finds itself eight points in arrears and fighting for a spot in the five.
Geelong Amateur co-coach Jarrod Young summed up the situation perfectly after his team’s victory, acknowledging every time it knocked off a potential finals rival in 2018 it was worth its weight in gold.
“Modewarre would have been equal with us if we had have lost and we knew that coming in,” Young said.
“It is good to be able to get that little break at this time of year and we just need to keep winning games of footy and improving because there is still a long way to go in the year.
“But especially against the teams that are around us we’ve got to keep winning games of footy and to get a win like that early could count for double at the end of the year.”
The difference between earning a top-three spot and missing out altogether in the BFL this year could quite easily come down to Round 18.
The last weekend of the homeand-away season sees Saturday’s roles reversed, with Queenscliff hosting Ocean Grove and Modewarre hosting Geelong Amateur.
The two defeated teams will no doubt be seeking revenge.
But with a place in the finals potentially on the line, a reversal of results may just represent more than retribution.
It could mean salvation.