While the Gippsland League may hold major-league status, there will only be games of minor significance tomorrow.
With two rounds to go and finals-bound teams set, it will just be a matter of fine-tuning for those on the way to September.
There is unlikely to be any change to the current placement of the top-five by the time the regular season is out. The ladder currently reads: Wonthaggi, Moe, Leongatha, Traralgon and Sale. The Power and Lions are equal-first, although Wonthaggi is some distance ahead on percentage, while Leongatha is two games clear in third from Traralgon in fourth.
Sale is two games clear in fifth heading into Round 17, but three games off the Maroons, meaning the Elimination Final is already set.
The Magpies will get to play a dress rehearsal for that final, as they play Traralgon in the last round.
Bloodbath looming?
Sale is playing Warragul tomorrow at Sale Oval.
Combatants will be entering this match with differing motivations – the Magpies with eye turned to finals, and the Gulls with one eye turned to Mad Monday.
Warragul is anchored in second-last position on the ladder, and is arguably the worst team in the competition on current form. The Gulls are on a four-game losing streak, and that looks all but certain to extend to five by 4.45pm tomorrow.
Sale on the other hand has won its last two games, and enters this match fresh from a week off courtesy of playing in the first week of the split round.
While Warragul is in the same boat, it is likely the Gulls viewed their extra week off as merely an opportunity to have more players available, rather than have guys freshen.
The Magpies could just about be ready to hit their peak for finals, and could see this game as the runway to September.
Former VFL player Cody Henness came back through the reserves last round, playing only around 10 minutes on the comeback trail.
Although he hasn’t played a senior game since Round 1, Henness will need to play either seniors or reserves tomorrow for the simple reason he needs to play four games for the year to qualify for finals.
Sale should win this game comfortably, but by the same token, playing-coach Jack Johnstone will be wanting to see his players adopt the right methods.
Coming into any game where the result appears a foregone conclusion can often see players drop their defensive intent or run forward of the ball to get cheap kicks. While the Magpies will be able to get away with that sort of play against a team like Warragul, there is no way known it will hold up in finals.
A foregone conclusion the game might be, although most people were thinking the same thing about Bairnsdale’s task against Traralgon last week … surely not here.
Maffra is back home.
The Eagles’ game will be in stark contrast to Sale’s when they take on Moe.
Maffra, well out of contention with just four wins this year, has the Lions to deal with – a team that has the double-chance all sewn up.
The Eagles will be licking their wounds after handing Drouin an unlikely victory last round, where they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, letting the Hawks come back from 45 points down at halftime.
As horrendous as that performance was, the scoreboard tomorrow will be nil-nil when the game starts, and Maffra might have a few hidden advantages that can’t be measured by statistics.
Tomorrow will be the first Eagles home game since the death of club legend Jim Hill. One of just three official legends at Maffra, there could be an eerie feeling around the venue tomorrow.
Sam Davidson showed his football smarts last week, tapping the ball behind him to a running Daniel Bedggood who snapped a great goal. Both players will give Moe enough to think about.
How Moe travels also adds some intrigue to the contest.
The Lions have been kissed where it feels best as far as the fixture goes in the second half of the season, and are yet to travel outside the Latrobe Valley.
Maffra threw a curveball at Moe last time around, playing without wings, which saw the Eagles only a handful of points down at three quarter time.
Despite the discrepancy on the ladder, the Lions will need to be wary, at a ground they have traditionally found difficult to win at.
Moe has won just once in the last five years at Maffra.
Moe will have added motivation on a few others fronts, and it also has the chance to create history.
If successful tomorrow, the Lions will secure a perfect away record in matches played in season 2023.
The Lions have never gone through a season winning every away game.
The closest Moe has come is 1963, when they won seven, lost one and had a draw.
This year also saw Moe win at Sale Oval for the first time since 2002.
Survivors from Moe’s last game in Maffra will also surely be out to turn the tables.
Last year, a broken Lions outfit was humiliated on the Eagles’ home deck to the tune of 125 points in Round 12.
That performance may well have set in motion the Lion’s resurrection this season, as a subsequent crisis meeting three weeks later following a 140-point loss to Sale put Moe’s organisation for 2023 into overdrive.
What a difference a year makes.
In other games, a top-five battle is fixtured.
Wonthaggi hosts Traralgon, who will be desperate to snap their two-game losing streak.
Drouin will be confident at home following their crazy victory, although Leongatha will surely prove a sterner test.
Bairnsdale will be equally confident after beating Traralgon, and will entertain thoughts of defeating another Valley team when Morwell rolls into town.
