Race for spots comes down to final round
AUSSIE RULES: The last round of the Allied Pickford’s Cup will answer two major questions this afternoon.
The first is who will secure fourth place in the finals series.
USQ, South Toowoomba and Goondiwindi have all booked their spot, with Warwick and South Burnett, both tied on 36 points, fighting it out for the final position.
South Burnett is expected to comfortably hold their own against Highfields in a game they must win, however with their inferior percentage they will be relying on a favour from second-placed South Toowoomba.
The Bombers host Warwick at Heritage Oval, where a win from the Redbacks would end the Saints’ hopes of contending for a flag.
Despite ultimately having their faith in another team’s hands, South Burnett coach Paul Presnell said his team was focusing on what they could control, starting with a return to Lyle Vidler Oval, where they’d won all five games by an average of more than 100 points for the season.
“All we can do is concentrate on what we need to do, which is to win and then just see what happens after that,” Presnell
said.
“When we get all our players together we are a good side. Over the past few weeks we’ve had nearly everybody available. Before we struggled for a few weeks when we needed to travel.
“The games we’ve lost have always been on travel. There’s been a couple of occasions where we’ve had to make 10 changes to the team.
“If we’re fortunate enough to make the semis with our best 22, I think we could go pretty close. Fingers crossed it works out that way.
“Until then, we’ll treat this as our last game and hope things fall into place.”
The South Toowoomba and Warwick clash won’t only have implications for who finishes fourth, as the Bombers have the potential to drop out of the top two for the first time since round two.
They sit equal with Goondiwindi on 40 points, narrowly ahead on percentages, but are favoured to finish third with the Hawks facing bottomplaced Chinchilla at home, unless they can produce a big win of their own.