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COLAC coach Paul Lynch says his team is a "live chance" to play finals after another hard-fought 21-point win over Leopold on Saturday.
But Lynch admitted the task in front of the Tigers was tough, with clashes against top three teams Grovedale, Bell Park and South Barwon to come.
"We're under no illusion, we know we are right up against it, but if it happens it would be a fairytale story from where we've come from," Lynch said.
The Tigers, who had only one win after six rounds, have miraculously given themselves a mathematical chance to make the finals with eight wins from their past 10 matches.
"We have Grovedale next week so we are still a live chance to play finals, and while we are still a live chance, we'll keep working towards that," Lynch said.
Last time Colac and Leopold went head-to-head the Tigers prevailed easily by 111 points, but this time around the Lions made Colac work hard.
"We played well in periods of the game. I thought our second quarter was very ordinary when we had the wind, but our first quarter was really good. Then we just gutted and nutted it out for the rest," Lynch said.
"I thought they had the wind early and it was probably a five or six-goal wind so we controlled the game pretty well.
"We had a plan that if we were kicking against the wind then we would really slow down the game to our pace and we did that really well and kept possession of the football.
"In the second quarter, when it was our turn to attack, we went into our shell a bit, played wide and didn't come through the corridor so that was disappointing."
The weather took a turn for the worse in the second half as the rain well and truly set in.
In the final quarter Colac ran over the top of a gallant Leopold to seal the 21-point win.
"I always reckon that a sign of a good side is when they can respond," Lynch said.
"I gave them a bit of a spray at half-time and then our contested footy pressure around the footy was really, really good.
"Training on our big ground every week, we are probably one of the fittest sides in the competition. We are young as well.
"We haven't had a game where we haven't finished it off well all year. We seem to be able to run out games very, very well."
"When the scores were level or almost level at three-quarter time I always thought we had the legs to run over top of them."
