The Demons experienced it first-hand earlier in the season, and saw it again last weekend when Bridgewater came from 15 points down late in the final quarter to defeat Newbridge by two points in the Loddon Valley league qualifying final.

Bridgewater’s win over the Maroons propelled the Mean Machine into Saturday’s second semi-final against the Demons at Newbridge.

The Demons finished four games clear at the top of the ladder with a 15-1 record – their only loss coming against Bridgewater when they surrendered a 39-point half-time lead to lose by eight.

“I still consider Bridgewater the benchmark after winning seven grand finals in a row, and you only had to see them last week when they were down and out and then fired a couple of quick shots to win the game,” Dennis said on Friday.

“You can’t write Bridgewater off until the final siren, but we already knew that after last time when we blew that big lead against them.

“We learned from that game that it’s going to take a four-quarter performance against a quality side like Bridgewater and you can’t afford to rest on your laurels.”

The winner of Saturday’s clash will take the direct route through to the grand final at Serpentine on September 2.

With one of the Demons or Mean Machine guaranteed to play off for the flag, it will be the 16^th grand final in a row dating back to 2002 to feature either Calivil United or Bridgewater.

The Mean Machine has suffered a blow with Alex Pollock to miss the rest of the season with a torn meniscus.

“Unfortunately, he’s finished for the season now. It has been described as a four-to-six week injury. If it had been the middle of the year he could have got over it, but that’s not to be,” Bridgewater coach Marc Lindsay said.

The Mean Machine – who have now won 16-straight finals stretching back to 2010 – are determined not to get themselves into a similar position to last week where they had to dig deep in the dying minutes to get over the line against the odds.

“We understand it wasn’t an ideal situation we got ourselves into last week, but in saying that, it was a win built around hard work for four quarters, so that was a positive we took out of it,” Lindsay said.

“We’ll be hoping to play well for four quarters on Saturday, which we will need to beat a quality side like Calivil.

“We lapsed against Newbridge in the third quarter last week when we had the game on our terms, but gave up a four-goal lead, so we can’t let that happen again.”

The Mean Machine have made two changes to their side, bringing in Peter Rothacker and Kevin Bloom for Pollock and Jack Symons.

• How they match up:

Calivil United:

Record – 15-1

Average for – 113

Average against – 60

Quarters won – 52/64

Bridgewater:

Record – 12-5

Average for – 93

Average against – 68

Quarters won – 37/68

………………………………..

• After last weekend’s missed opportunity against Bridgewater, Newbridge has to regroup for its first semi-final clash against Mitiamo.

The Maroons and Superoos will put their seasons on the line against each other at Bridgewater on Sunday.

“There’s no doubt we were gutted with last weekend’s result, but we’ve had a real focus during the week on the errors we made late in the game that we can’t just let slide because it cost us,” Newbridge coach Matt Dillon said.

“We can’t afford to dwell on last week and in terms of training, it has been really good and the big positive is we get an opportunity on Sunday to make amends.”

Newbridge finished two games clear of Mitiamo on the ladder. However, the Superoos have proven a bogey side for the Maroons, comfortably winning their two home and away encounters by 61 and 32 points.

The Superoos last week kept their season alive with a 35-point win over Bears Lagoon-Serpentine in the elimination final.

It was the fourth win in a row for the Superoos, who rallied to kick away from the Bears after they threatened to be over-run in the last term.

Coach Justin Maddern was pivotal in the win for the Superoos with eight goals to kickstart a big 24 hours following the birth of his second daughter, Sylvie, on Monday.

“It has been a great week starting with the win over Serp and we’re looking forward to another crack this weekend,” Maddern said.

“The group is taking a lot of confidence out of the way we’ve been playing over the past month.

“But we know we’ve got our work cut out for us this weekend against Newbridge, which obviously played well for a lot of the game against Bridgewater last week.”

• How they match up:

Newbridge:

Record – 11-6

Average for – 78

Average against – 72

Quarters won – 35/68

Mitiamo:

Record – 10-7

Average for – 86

Average against – 62

Quarters won – 40/68

Saturday’s and Sunday’s senior finals start at 2.15pm.