Minor premiers St Mary’s has a week off for the start of the GFNL finals series, but co-coach Glenn Keast said it will be a close race to flag with all the teams in the running evenly matched.
“I think anything’s possible in terms of what could happen over the next month,” Keast said.
“Leopold has been one of the form teams of the comp for the year, particularly the early part of the year, and Colac have been right up there all year, and South Barwon, we’ve got a lot of respect for them,” he said.
“We’ve had a couple of close games, one going (Sth Barwon’s) way and one going our way.
“So, I think anything’s possible, it is a pretty even competition.
South Barwon finished third on the ladder and take on second-placed Colac in the qualifying final on Saturday at West Oval.
The Swans beat the Tigers in Round 18 by 27 points, after a nail-biting nine-point win against St Mary’s, and in Round 5 by 52 points, so go into the qualifying final as favourites.
Leopold will take on Newtown & Chilwell in the sudden-death elimination final on Sunday at West Oval, after the Lions beat the Eagles by 32 points last weekend.
Newtown got the better of Leopold by only nine points in Round 5, so this Sunday’s final promises to be a gripping clash with neither team having the home ground advantage.
“I think it will be like last week, a very tight contest, two very evenly matched teams, both strong through the mids, tall forwards and tall backs on both teams,” Eagles coach Damien McMahon said.
“We’re obviously coming off a loss last week and we know we need to improve to make sure we get the result that we’re after,” he said.
“We didn’t kick enough goals and we let them kick too many easy ones in the second half.
“Our mission is to play four quarters of football rather than two good ones like we did last week.
“Playing (Leopold) on a neutral venue is our preference and the way the draw’s worked out for a couple of weeks at Geelong West gives us an opportunity to play them away from their home deck.
“Last week we played them at Leopold and knowing their hosting the back end of the finals, let’s hope we’re the only team they play in the finals.”
