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Bendigo FNLRichard Jones | We’re just past the halfway mark in the Bendigo Football and Netball League season and yet the Top Five in the footy looks reasonably set.

South Bendigo is clinging onto fifth spot two clear games ahead of 2019 grand finalist Eaglehawk albeit with an inferior percentage.

The Hawks haven’t beaten a side above them all season largely because they lost class and depth when a big number of top players were cleared after the 2019 season and then this year’s pre-season to Heathcote league club Lockington-Bamawm.
While fifth spot is still not completely settled neither is the Top Three where those clubs enjoy a double chance when the finals roll around in September.

At present the leading four sides in order are Sandhurst, defending premiers Strathfieldsaye, Golden Square and Gisborne.
The Dragons are a game clear on top with the second and third-placed Storm and the Wade Street Dogs on identical wins and losses with just percentage separating them.

Gisborne dropped from second to fourth following a 43-point loss to Strathfieldsaye at the Storm’s Tannery Lane headquarters on Saturday.
I covered the Eaglehawk-Square Rd. 9 game when the HaCould everything come down to the round listed for the end of August --- the re-scheduled Round 11 which was transferred following the two-week Covid lockdown in central Victoria.

The three big games listed for decision in that concluding round of the year before the 2021 finals start are Gisborne vs. Square, Sandhurst vs. Strath Storm and Eaglehawk vs. South Bendigo.

I’m tipping which club finishes where will be decided in that very last home-and-away round, a tremendous set of matches which will cap off an extremely eventful and incident-packed season.

The Eaglehawk-Bloods clash could very well determine just who sneaks into the Top Five and earns a spot in the 2021 finals as well as determining who ends up third –-- between Golden Square and Gisborne --- and claims a finals double chance.