Mininera finals open with bang
With Mininera and District Football League’s regular season over, the race for the premiership cup is now on, and while the short odds are on Wickliffe-lake Bolac, anything can happen in finals.
The first week of finals sees Glenthompson-dunkeld take on Penshurst in a qualifying final at Lake Bolac and Lismore-derrinallum up against Tatyoon in an elimination game at Hawkesdale.
Glenthompson-dunkeld and Penshurst are sitting at one win each against each other from the home-and-away season, with Penshurst having a 51-point win in round six and Glenthompson-dunkeld winning by 10 points last week.
Penshurst finished the year in second place, just two points in front of Glenthompson-dunkeld.
Both teams will be eager to get their first win on the board to have first crack at the favoured Magpies.
Andrew and Matthew Lowe, Ryan Fischer and Michael Uebergang will all play a huge part in the outcome for Glenthompson-dunkeld, with all having been on the best-player list multiple times this season.
Others include Damien Logan, Mitchell Johnson, Joshua Nield and William Collins, who have all performed well against Penshurst. For the Bombers, all eyes will be on coach Justin Eales, with Matthew and Joshua Rentsch, Brenton Mckenry and Joe Page who, time and time again, all are good performers.
If last week is anything to go on this will be a great battle right to the end.
No strangers to finals
Tatyoon and Lismore-derrinallum, meanwhile, are no strangers to the finals, with both winning flags in the past two years.
Although both teams preparing for the elimination final are not quite where they were in their premiership season, neither can be counted out because both have big-game players who thrive under pressure.
Tatyoon Hawks have won the chocolates both times these teams have met throughout the regular season, albeit only by the smallest of margins, including in round 11 in their last meeting.
Reigning league best and fairest Michael Lockyer will be enormously influential for the Demons, having consistently proven that while he is playing his team is never out of the hunt.
Tatyoon will not only look to shut Lockyer down, but to unleash its own strong forward line to get the Hawks over the line.
Both games are set to sizzle and start off the finals series with a bang.