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WINCHELSEA will play GDFL finals for the first time since joining the league in 2002 following a hard-fought 27-point win over Thomson.
The Blues made it five wins in a row in front of a finals hungry home crowd and will now prepare for Werribee next week in the elimination final.
The club completed what has been a brilliant transition from wooden spooner to a finals, having won just one match in the past two seasons.
Coach David Mensch was ecstatic post-match and optimistic of his side's potential in finals given the players' "nothing to lose" mind set.
"(I'm) really excited, we've got nothing to lose I suppose ... it was a mini final (today), no doubt about that," Mensch said.
"We really concentrated on getting our crowd going, (it) just lifted us immensely ... I'm just glad for the club because there's so many people out here that put in a great amount of time and energy.
"We've won five in a row now, we're playing our best footy for the year. We're pretty much injury free, we're just going to have our best go at it and see what happens."
Mensch put the club's transformation down to a committed group of young players coupled with the addition of experienced recruits joining the club in 2013.
"The young players have really come on, we had smaller players playing in key positions last year and now we've got myself, Van Der Klooster, Hermans ... so those smaller players can go back to the flanks," he said.
"They've really been wanting to learn, (they're) dedicated and obviously we had a goal to make finals."
Brad MacKenzie was sublime from defence along with Tim Van Der Klooster who dominated the aerial contests as a loose man behind the play.
Brody Donald again featured heavily up forward with four majors while Joel Higgins and Brett Venables provided the Blues with plenty of avenues to goal.
