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OPPORTUNITY - that's what this time of the year is all about on the football field.

The opportunity for players to showcase their skill on the big stage and strive to reap the reward for all the hard work that for many clubs begins back in November with pre-season.

Saturday across the AFL Central Victoria region presents the opportunity for six teams - North Bendigo, Colbinabbin, Pyramid Hill, Bears Lagoon-Serpentine, Sea Lake Nandaly and Birchip-Watchem - to win their way through to a grand final.

That golden opportunity to advance to a grand final is one that North Bendigo has made the most of during the Bulldogs' sustained run as a power club in the Heathcote District league.

Beat Colbinabbin in Saturday's second semi-final at Heathcote and the Bulldogs will book their berth in a sixth-consecutive grand final.

And their seventh in eight seasons given they also played off for the flag against LBU in 2012 before being part of every grand final since 2014 for two premierships in 2015 and 2016.

The only interruption to the Bulldogs' grand final run since 2012 has been 2013 when they bowed out in the preliminary final.

Given the constant presence of the Bulldogs on the grand stage in recent years, it can be easy to forget that for the 30 years between 1982 and 2012 the club played in just one grand final - a 1998 loss to Colbinabbin.

But they've taken their grand final qualification opportunities of late - something their opponent, Colbinabbin, hasn't.

The Grasshoppers earned three cracks at getting through to a grand final across the previous four years, but were unable to seize on any of them.

They lost both the second semi-final and preliminary final in 2015 and the preliminary final again last year.

So can this 2019 group of Colbinabbin players make the most of the opportunity that is presented on Saturday and win their way through to the club's first grand final since 2009?

The Grasshoppers have lost to the Bulldogs twice already this season, but as last week's result against LBU proved, they won't be fazed by that.

Colbinabbin had also been beaten twice in the home and away season by LBU, but ran the Cats off their feet in the qualifying final to produce a super-impressive 29-point win.

The Grasshoppers trailed the Cats by 33 points on a hot day on the big ground at Gunbower and will know that if they are facing adversity again on Saturday that they have the capacity to dig in and will their way back into the game.

Can't wait to see how forward Daniel Connors goes second-up after his electric performance last Saturday when he booted seven goals for the Grasshoppers.

Connors brings plenty of swagger to the Colbinabbin forward line and if the Grasshoppers can keep him fit and firing through the remainder of the finals series then they are certainly going to take some beating.

Connors down one end; down the other an in-form Brady Herdman, who has kicked six, six, seven and six goals in his past four games for the Bulldogs is certainly an enticing prospect.

While the Bulldogs haven't come up against a Colbinabbin side with Connors in it yet, they were able to beat the Grasshoppers by 11 points a fortnight ago minus Herdman - as well as Jake Hyland, Mani Thalasinos, Jack Donat and Jordan Collins, who all come back into the team this week.

On Sunday it's Lockington-Bamawm United and Mount Pleasant fighting for survival in the first semi-final at North Bendigo.

The Cats spent the entire season either first or second on the ladder, but there's no lifeline left now for Kahl Oliver's men after their qualifying final capitulation against the Grasshoppers.

Twice last week the Cats had the game where they wanted it - 33 points up (58-25) nine minutes into the second quarter, and then after surrendering the lead, back out by 16 points (100-84) early in the last term with all the momentum.

Yet they couldn't deliver the knockout blow and instead were left flattened by the resilient Grasshoppers, who kicked the last seven goals to charge away.

Contrast that flat finish from the Cats with the buoyancy Mount Pleasant will take into Sunday given what they displayed after half-time against White Hills in the elimination final.

The Blues' 15 minute burst in the third term when they kicked eight unanswered goals (Ben Weightman booted five of them) would be right up there with as good a brand of footy as played by any team this year as they went from 20 points down to 30 points up.

Couple that with the fact the Blues have beaten the Cats already this year - by five points in round six - it certainly set up an intriguing do-or-die battle.

If the Cats have as much trouble with Weightman as they did with Connors last week then they could be staring at a straight-sets exit, but they've been too good a side this year to not at least win one final, which the Blues have already done.

Meanwhile, in the Loddon Valley Mitiamo awaits the winner of the preliminary final between Bears Lagoon-Serpentine and Pyramid Hill at Inglewood.

It has been a mighty effort by Bears Lagoon-Serpentine coach Greg Gadsden to get the club on the verge of a grand final given it was only three years ago in 2016 the Bears were winless - in not just the seniors, but reserves and under-18s as well.

Even earlier this year the Bears looked like they may well be off the pace given they were 2-3 after five games and one of those wins had been scraping over the line against wooden-spooner Inglewood by one point.

But they worked their way into the season, finished third to earn the double chance, bounced back from a qualifying final loss to Mitiamo by 49 points to over-run Maiden Gully YCW by 21 points in the first semi-final last week and keep their flag dream alive.

Standing in the way of Bears Lagoon-Serpentine earning a shot at vieing for its first flag since 1995 are the Bulldogs, who may well be not only playing against 22 Bears players, but the ghosts of failed finals past.

The Bulldogs are renowned as a strong home and away club - 11 top-three ladder finishes in the 15 seasons since 2005 - but a 12-25 finals record through that time and still no senior silverware since 1950.

No doubt coach Adrian McErvale will have his players firmly focused on the job at hand and to not be weighed down by the burden that comes with trying to end one of country Victoria's longest premiership droughts given they are just one win away from earning that opportunity.

Opportunity... there's that word again.

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