YOU'VE lost your past 31 games and look at the fixture to see your next three matches are all against finals-bound teams.

That's the scenario confronting Castlemaine co-coach Derrick Filo and his Magpies as they enter the final month of the BFNL home and away season.

The Magpies' last victory remains round one last year against Maryborough and while every week is tough in Castlemaine's position, it now faces a run of three games in a row against Sandhurst (5th) this Sunday at the QEO, Strathfieldsaye (1st) and Golden Square (4th).

"Our focus will be the same as any game... just try to give a competitive effort," Filo said on Wednesday.

"We have a lot of young players in the side, so it's a good chance against those top sides to try to teach them a bit more about the game.

"Those young players have been accelerated in their responsibility this year, but we'll certainly be going out there and trying to push those teams the best we can.

"For periods when we've played the sides like Eaglehawk we've been competitive, but when we've fallen away we've fallen away really bad and conceded too many goals, so we really want to focus in on stopping those easy goals over these next few weeks."

While it has been another season of consistent hidings - only two of the Magpies' 14 losses have been by less than 50 points - Filo says the chance to add a year's worth of senior experience into the likes of Jack Chester, Riley Pedretti and William Moran is a positive the club will take from 2019.

"We're not happy with where we're at, but some of our kids in Will Moran, Riley Pedretti and Jack Chester, at the end of the year they're going to be up around 30 to 40 games of senior footy," Filo said.

"The transition from 10 games to 40 games is really huge and some of our kids can really play. If they were at a Strathfieldsaye or an Eaglehawk they'd be sitting in a pocket or a flank, but instead they're playing on the ball or at centre half-back for us.

"We played another young kid in Brodie Byrne at the weekend and he looks like he's going to be a very good senior player in 12 to 18 months.

"We didn't want to have to put so much responsibility on our young players, but the experience they are gaining has been a positive for us."

Meanwhile, the Sandhurst-Castlemaine under-18 football and 17-under netball matches will be played at the QEO on Thursday night from 6.30pm.

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