BOORT, Sea Lake Nandaly, Calder United and Birchip Watchem enter the last round of North Central A Grade netball in a tight battle for finals places and the double chance.
The Magpies’ 73-28 win over bottom side St Arnaud has put them in the box seat to claim second place on the ladder.
That would give them the double chance and the dubious honour of facing unbeaten Wedderburn in the second semi-final.
Boort coach Carly Isaac, however, said the Magpies would relish another crack at the Redbacks in a second semi-final, which will be played at Boort.
“We haven’t played them at full strength this season,” she said.
“Both times we have had one or two players out and have played a few junior girls.”
Sea Lake can still overtake Boort if it can manage a big win over Calder United.
That unlikely prospect would mean surpassing the Magpies’ percentage, which will almost certainly get a boost from their clash with second-last Charlton.
The Tigers need to make up more than 3 per cent to sneak past Boort.
Fifth-placed Birchip is a very slim chance to displace Calder from the finals if the Lions lose to Sea Lake by a large margin and the Bulls can thump Donald, which has won only four times this season.
WEDDERBURN did local rivals Boort a favour by beating Sea Lake 46-26, enabling the Magpies to leapfrog the Tigers into second.
The Tigers lost powerful goal shooter Nakia Nunn to an ankle injury in the second quarter, which limited their scoring options for the rest of the game.
Redbacks coach Susie Lockhart said it was a very physical outing, even more so than the previous week’s match against Boort.
“Sea Lake are good – they contest the ball hard and they are pretty clever,” she said.
“It didn’t really feel like we were winning by 20 goals.”
Olivia Lockhart, Sophie Cockerell, Maddy Postle and Kelsey Pallpratt were named as the Redbacks’ best.
With both A Grade and B Grade teams undefeated, Wedderburn will head into the finals with an enviable depth of talent.
“We’re pretty well covered in every position,” coach Lockhart said.
The Redbacks face cellar-dweller St Arnaud in the final round.