Riddell feels like it has timed things perfectly to have another good crack at the Riddell District Football League finals series.
Last season’s premiers have again been one of the teams to beat this season and locked in a top two spot a number of weeks ago along with Diggers Rest.
While the final race has gone deep for the final three spots, the top three, including Wallan, have watched the battle.
Coach Aron Bray admits they have been juggling things to ensure they are good to go for finals and keep the squad playing some good football.
He said it had been a bit tricky the last few weeks with their ladder position and opening round finals opponent settled.
“The last few weeks it has been a bit like that,” he said. “We could not lose second spot.
“We want to take some good form into finals but you naturally go into a bit of self preservation mode.”
Bray said they don’t think they’ve been playing the same sort of footy as they played last year heading into finals.
He said they felt like that was still to come in the next couple of weeks.
“From round one we’ve had four players in and four players out for pretty much all of the season,” he said.
“We haven’t had great consistency but by the first final with Diggers Rest we will be chasing our best.”
The Bombers had the bye on the weekend in the final round.
Bray said he didn’t really worry about having the bye or not at this time of year and thought it was a good opportunity to rest some sore bodies before a big finals series.
Their last match of the regular season was a loss to Woodend-Hesket, not something that really worried Bray.
It was just their third loss of the season.
“It was one of those things,” he said. “There was nothing really to take out of the game so we rested four or five guys.
“We’d jagged together eight or nine matches straight.
“We were still in the game, but Woodend bought the heat and thoroughly deserved the win.”
Bray said they will welcome four or five players back into the side for the first week of finals in a big boost for the side.
The Bombers will face Diggers Rest in a qualifying final.
The Burras are the only side the Bombers haven’t beaten this season.
“We’ve played some good footy and we’re pretty confident we will have our full list against them and it will be a different beat.”
