Four Geelong Football League sides sitting third to sixth on the ladder are vying for three finals spots.
Newtown & Chilwell, South Barwon, Leopold and St Joseph’s are all on 11 wins with two rounds remaining.
Not only are they fighting for a finals spot, they are all still in the hunt for third place and the double chance that goes with it.
South Barwon has the toughest assignment, facing St Mary’s (first) and Colac (second).
Newtown & Chilwell should defeat Lara this week and then square off against Leopold, which should beat St Albans. St Joseph’s have St Mary’s and Geelong West.
South Barwon had to work super hard to get over a spirited Grovedale in round 16.
Grovedale led by nine points at three-quarter time, but a five-goal final term sealed the win with skipper Matt Caldow in fine form, booting four goals.
Ryan Abbott had 42 hitouts for Grovedale and Will Ford had 31 disposals.
St Joseph’s also had to dig deep to dispose of Bell Park by 18 points.
James (43 possessions) and Alex Hickey (31) had the ball on a string while Keegan Gray had 27 touches and Darcy Brown 38 hitouts and eight tackles for the Dragons.
After not winning a game for four years, St Albans made two on the trot.
The Supersaints defeated North Shore by two points with Ben Miller and Nathan Cole firing while Jordan Lyons booted four goals.
The Seagulls were well served by Lachlan Hayes’ 23 disposals and Joel Edwards’ four goals.
Colac prevailed over Newtown & Chilwell in horrendous conditions that made scoring difficult.
Kody Spokes’ 24 touches ignited Colac’s charge and Matthew Boag had the most possessions on the ground with 37 for the Eagles.
St Mary’s was far too good for Lara, winning by 64 points.
Scott Selwood racked up 29 touches and star forward Sam Dobson booted six goals in the win while Connor Thar was prolific for Lara with 36 disposals, 21 of them contested.
Leopold did what it needed to do with a 57-point win against Geelong West.
Marcus Thompson was his usual busy self with 41 possessions and Trent West had 66 hitouts.
Not to be outdone, David Handley racked up 41 touches for the Giants and Jamieson Ballantyne 31.
