Two of the three clubs will miss a spot in the finals as interest in the final month of home and away competition reaches new heights.
There are only four home and away rounds remaining, but the four point win of the club in Saturday’s KDFNL Indigenous Round against Undera has kept the team in the hunt.
Girgarre is 10th, one win out of the eight with four wins, and fresh off a 15.11 (101) to 15.7 (97) win on Saturday.
Unbeaten Avenel will finish on top and a win by Stanhope against Shepparton East on the weekend has taken it into second — equal of points with Murchison Toolamba.
Fourth-ranked Shepparton East has a draw which should allow it to remain in the top four, while Lancaster (fifth) faced no-one above it on the ladder in the final four weeks.
Lancaster will compete with Stanhope, Shepparton East and Murchison-Toolamba for the remaining three double chance finals spots.
Violet Town, Merrigum and one of three teams — Nagambie, Dookie United or Girgarre - are elimination final bound on week one of the Kyabram district finals series.
One win in the final four matches for Merrigum should be enough to get it into the finals. It has a tough draw, facing Murchison-Toolamba twice in the final month and second-ranked Stanhope.
It should win the remaining match with 11th-ranked Tallyaroopna.
Girgarre can certainly make a case for claiming a spot in the finals, which has been the theme of its season under Cupido — who interestingly is only one goal behind Josh Mellington on the goalkicking table following his heroics on the weekend.
The teams directly above Girgarre on the ladder could confidently pencil only one win from four matches in before finals time, while the Kangaroos should win three of its final four games.
Eight goals from the still explosive left boot of 40-year-old coach Damian Cupido, with another majors five from defender-cum forward Jordan Clarke allowed the Kangaroos to survive a late charge from the lowly ranked Undera at Girgarre on Saturday.
Girgarre has winnable games against Rushworth (13th), Tallygaroopna (11th) and Longwood (14th) — fittingly a final round Sunday fixture — in the final four weeks.
If it can cause a major upset and beat finals bound Lancaster (fifth) in the other match it will almost certainly qualify for the playoffs.
After this weekend’s July 16 round of matches the 14th round of the season will be split over two weeks (July 23 and 30). The Kangaroos, along with other finals aspirants Merigum (seventh), Stanhope (second) and Lancaster — who play Girgarre) are all pencilled in for July 30 matches.
Dookie (currently ninth) has three appointments with finals bound teams among its final four rounds, while Nagambie (eighth) has almost a carbon copy of the draw faced by Dookie.
Clarke provided the support mechanism to Cupido which allowed the Kangaroos to recover from a 16-point quarter-time deficit and a six-point half-time margin.
Prior to Saturday Clarke had kicked only two goals from 11 games, and both of those had come a week earlier when he was swung forward against Dookie.
The Kangaroos took the lead for the first time during the third term and led by 16 points after kicking six goals in the third term.
Undera, with just two wins for the season, kicked four goals in the final term as the Kangaroos narrowly clung to the lead.
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