THE battle for fifth spot in the Bendigo Football Netball League will come down to the final home and away match of the season.  Sandhurst's stunning 45-point win over third-placed Gisborne at Gardiner Reserve on Saturday ensured the race for the final five will go the distance.

Sandhurst should make it six-straight wins against Castlemaine this Saturday.

The Dragons then face South Bendigo in the last home and away match of the year on Sunday, August 28.

South Bendigo can seal a finals berth if it defeats fifth-placed Strathfieldsaye this Sunday.

However, a Storm win this week would effectively make the Sandhurst-South Bendigo final round game an elimination final.

On form the Dragons are arguably the second-best team in the competition behind Golden Square.

They inflicted Gisborne's biggest defeat of the season on Saturday and have all the momentum heading into the business end of the season.

"They just never gave us a chance to play well. They were awesome," Gisborne coach Luke Saunders said of Sandhurst's performance.

"I already rated Sandhurst very highly, but now I rate them even higher.

"I was pretty disappointed with the way we played, but it was more about how good they were."

Despite having ruckman Taylor Strachan and young gun Joel Wharton withdraw before the game and skipper Michael Cornish off the ground injured before half-time, the Dragons dominated the Bulldogs.

Key forward Matt Thornton was oustanding with five goals, Jon and Lee Coghlan set the tone in the middle of the ground and youngster Corey Lobb produced his best game of the season.

In a pleasing sign for coach Tony Graham, the Dragons had 11 individual goalkickers.

The Dragons defence was superb as well as they became the first team this year to restrict Gisborne to fewer than 11 goals.

James McFarlane and Tim Walsh stood out on a poor day for the Bulldogs.

After appearing to be the number one contender to Golden Square, Gisborne has lost three of its past four games and third place is now in jeopardy.

The Bulldogs travel to Maryborough next week before hosting the injury-ravaged Kangaroo Flat in the final round.

They could need to win both of those games to be assured of the double chance.

"If we want to win next week we need to play a lot better than we did today,'' Saunders said.

By Adam Bourke

Article first appeared The Bendigo Advertiser, 15 Aug, 2011