The three final rounds were to be two-day (80 overs) games and offered a chance for some teams to score maximum points wins.
But two of these last three home-and-away rounds have now been reduced to one-day, 45-over contests, ruling out the prospect of sides gaining maximum points.
That will be the case this Saturday when ladder leader Kyabram takes on Nagambie in one of the games that could have a major impact on the six finals spots.
Kyabram has a break of 10 premiership points over second placed Central Park St Brendan’s and a healthy 16-point advantage over Numurkah, Nagambie, Karramomus and Tatura, the other sides currently holding top six positions on the ladder.
Tatura is just three premiership points off those four sides, in seventh spot, so its clash with Old Students this Saturday is vital to its chances of playing finals.
The Waaia-Karramomus showdown and Numurkah-Shepparton Youth Club United clash are other games this Saturday that can influence the final six composition.
An added sidelight to the Nagambie-Kyabram clash will be the endeavours of Nagambie batsman Mitch Winter-Irving and Kyabram’s Kyle Mueller to get back into the battle to be the competition’s top run-getter for the season.
Mueller has held the honour for the past two seasons and was leading prior to the last round, when Central Park St Brendan’s star Tyler Larkin posted a century to soar to the top of the list with 417 runs.
Mueller, who had a rare failure in that round and made a duck, has now slipped to fourth on the list, 55 runs behind Larkin.
Winter-Irving sits in third place, 33 runs in arrears of Larkin, whose teammate Connor Hayes sits second, just 28 runs from the leader.
