St Mary’s clinging onto finals berth with two rounds left in NFL Division 2 season

St Mary’s is clinging onto a maiden finals berth heading into the last fortnight of the season with coach Fabian Carelli planning an all-out attack.

St Mary’s will throw everything at the final fortnight of the NFL Division 2 season to lock in a maiden finals appearance.

The Burras are clinging onto fifth place with Watsonia and Thomastown close behind in a nail-biting finish to the home-and-away season.

It would continue a rapid rise for the club after winning the Division 3 premiership in 2018 and finishing sixth in the COVID-shortened 2021 season.

However, a 70-point loss to minor premier Eltham on Saturday leaves it with an 8-8 record.

Watsonia enjoyed a 101-point victory over Fitzroy Stars to move within four points, while Thomastown is a further two points back after going down to Lower Plenty.

Nicholas Gedge takes a strong mark for St Mary’s. Picture: Andy Brownbill

The Burras face Lower Plenty on Saturday before what looms as a season-deciding clash against Thomastown in Round 18.

Coach Fabian Carelli said his team wouldn’t “die wondering”.

“It’s getting pretty tight isn’t it?” he said.

“We’re going to have a crack at both weeks, we’ve got two home games, so we’ve got to give our best.

“If we can go into the last round knowing we’re safe that would be a great feeling but we’ll need to work hard and go for it – that’s been out philosophy all year, we don’t want to die wondering.

“We’ve spoken about (finals), they know it’s there, it’s in the back of their minds. You can’t really avoid speaking about it.

“We’re in a good position, we’ve put ourselves in a good position to get there, so we’ve just got to work through the next two weeks.”

Thomastown faces Panton Hill (away) before meeting St Mary’s while Watsonia has Epping and Banyule in the last two games.

Ricky Wait gets a kick for St Mary’s. Picture: Andy Brownbill

The Burras hope to be boosted by the return to key forward Nick Dean as well as ruckman Bailey Leonard against Lower Plenty.

Carelli’s men went down to the Bears by 15 points in Round 9 at Montmorency Park but had five more scoring shots on the day.

A second half fadeout cost the club dearly against Eltham at Central Park on Saturday.

A one-point half-time lead turned into a nightmare loss as the Panthers slammed on 13 goals to one in the second half to run out 17.9 (111) to 5.10 (40) winners.

Vinny Loccisano, Tane Cotter and John Dean stood tall while Myles Guldon kicked two goals.

Bronson Glasgow was dominant for Eltham, while Dan Owen (four goals), James Minahan, Ben Montanaro and Josh Merkel impressed.

It came after a heart-breaking after-the-siren loss to Diamond Creek the previous week.

However, Carelli is remaining confident, knowing his players can deliver quality football.

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“(The Diamond Creek loss) was pretty heart-breaking to tell you the truth,” he said.

“You never want to blame umpires, there’s plenty of things we can look back on during the game, but when a decision affects the game and maybe common sense wasn’t used – it is what it is, we move on pretty quickly.

“If we can continue to bring the intensity we did in the first half (against Eltham) and turn that into three quarters and then four, that’s the message I want to send.

“Structurally we’ll look a bit different this week, which will help us, particularly with our forward entries.”