After spending two decades on the sidelines during the KDL finals, Girgarre has a chance of being involved in the September action despite being 10th on the ladder.
One of Cupido’s three wishes for the round was realised when Dookie, one of the teams challenging for the last spot in the finals, was beaten; but another of the teams fighting for a place in the finals caused a major upset.
Nagambie is now two games clear of the Kangaroos after beating the previously undefeated Avenel in a thriller — by four points — when star Avenel forward Jarrod Sutherland failed to score from a kick after the siren.
For the first time this season the Kyabram district league has a final eight, and the Kangaroos need at least two wins from their last three games and other results to go their way to make the play-offs.
If Merrigum (eighth) and Dookie (ninth) lose all of their remaining three games and the Kangaroos can beat lowly Tallygaroopna and Longwood, then a finals spot could become a reality.
The Kangaroos spent the weekend on the sidelines as only eight of the competition’s 14 teams fronted up for round 14.
This weekend, Girgarre will play Lancaster, on the Wombats’ home deck, and Merrigum (currently eighth) will play now fourth-ranked Stanhope. In the other match, Murchison Toolamba faces second-bottom Rushworth.
From an individual standpoint Cupido, who before the weekend led the competition’s goal-kicking table, has been challenged with the extraordinary return of Violet Town’s Jack Exell on the weekend.
Exell was equal with Cupido on 74 goals for the season before the weekend, but kicked an amazing 17 against Longwood on Saturday — in spite of the presence of former Geelong great Cameron Mooney.
Mooney was playing with Longwood as part of the Carlton Draft promotion, which had more than a dozen fomer AFL stars turn out with country Victorian clubs.
Exell now has 91 goals for the season, but Cupido has amazingly dropped to third spot on the table as a result of Exell’s teammate Josh Mellington’s 14-goal haul.
Violet Town won the match 40.20 (260) to Longwood’s 9.3 (57), two of those goals kicked by Mooney.
Mellington had missed the previous four games, but now has 78 goals from his 10 games for the season.
Cupdio and Girgarre meet Longwood in the final round of the season, a Sunday match on August 14, with the knowledge the former Essendon and Brisbane Lions star kicked 16 goals in the corresponding fixture earlier in the year.
