It is the first indication of a long, hot summer drawing to a close.
Cricket finals will be here in all their glory on Saturday.
Find out which Wyndham clubs are preparing for a premiership tilt and which ones will be taking an early holiday …
Hoppers Crossing: Who had Hoppers Crossing taking the Sub-District by storm in its first season since crossing from the VTCA?
The Cats finished an impressive fifth on the ladder – only four points off second spot – so will be on the road for the whole finals series. They travel to Caulfield for their qualifying final.
Werribee: All’s well that ends well for Werribee.At one stage, the Tigers found themselves in danger of missing the Sub-District top six, but they finished strongly to secure fourth and now face a tough away trip to Yarraville in an all-west qualifying final.
As an interesting side note, the Tigers won Sub-District’s club championship, which measures performances across all four grades.
Werribee Centrals: As it stands, Centrals are heading to the VTCA west A1 finals and will be aiming to win the flag from third. But the Centurions’ final-round opponents, Williamstown CYMS, launched a protest over the condition of the Galvin Park pitch for last Saturday’s game, so a finals berth is not a guarantee just yet.
CYs’ initial protest was dismissed by the VTCA, but they have the right to lodge an appeal if they feel strongly about their case.
For now, the Centurions face a sudden-death semi-final against Footscray United at Scovell Reserve.
Wyndham Vale: There were high hopes that it would play off in this season’s VTCA west A1 finals, but those dreams were all but dashed weeks ago.
The Falcons managed to avoid relegation by only 0.2 points, so they can thank their lucky stars they’ll be in west A1 again next summer.
Seabrook: Seabrook blew their chance of figuring in the VTCA west B1 finals with an outright loss to Footscray ANA in the final round.
Chris Kavanagh took eight scalps to give the Saints a sniff of a result reversal, but ANA was too good in the second innings, leaving the Saints to lament what might have been one spot outside the top four.
Point Cook: After a poor run of pre-Christmas results, Point Cook can be commended for hanging in and almost snatching a VTCA west B1 finals berth in the second half of the season.
What you don’t want is to leave too much to do on the final day against unbeaten minor premiers Deer Park, because it’s never going to end favourably. Predictably, the Warriors went down to Deer Park and had to settle for sixth.
Bellbridge: One of the WDCA A-turf front runners all season, Bellbridge secured a home semi-final with a win over Melton South in the final round.
The Bridge will fancy their chances of giving the flag a shake, but must overcome a tough opponent in Grand United to advance to the big dance.
Little River: Little River will enter the GCA division 3 finals on the back of consecutive wins. It will be do-or-die for the Redbacks all the way through the finals after a fifth-placed finish, starting with a semi-final against second-placed Corio.
The others: Glen Orden and Williams Landing will feature in WDCA A-matting finals, but Truganina has just missed out. Tarneit finished on top of the WDCA B-matting and will go into finals as premiership favourite.
