READ MORE - SELECTION NIGHT - weekend football teams: BFNL, HDFNL, LVFNL, NCFL, CVFLW

HUNTLY will be striving to pick up from where it left off and claim a piece of silverware when it hosts rivals North Bendigo in their annual Golden City Cup clash in the Heathcote District league on Saturday.

While the Hawks go into the match having only played two games in 35 days due to COVID lockdown pauses, both those games have been convincing wins - by 75 points against Leitchville-Gunbower (July 31) and 62 points against Elmore (July 10).

The Golden City Cup, which is held by North Bendigo, recognises the history between the Bulldogs and Hawks that is tied to the former Golden City Football League.

"The Golden City Cup is a really important day for the club and one we look forward to each year," Huntly coach Stacy Fiske said on Friday.

"North Bendigo holds it in the same regard as well, so it's really important we go out and perform in the right manner and represent the club well in a big game against a quality opponent.

"We want to make sure we play our best football and come away with the cup."

While their finals aspirations are over with two rounds remaining, the Hawks have been the big improvers this year.

After winning just one game in 2019 and claiming the wooden spoon, the Hawks have a 5-7 record and have been the closest any side has got to the undefeated Lockington-Bamawm United when they lost to the Cats by 23 points after leading for much of the game in round six.

Having taken steps forward this year in climbing the ladder, Fiske says the Hawks are determined to finish with a pair of strong performances against North Bendigo and Heathcote to carry momentum into 2022.

The Hawks have had to make six forced changes to their side on Saturday, with triple Cheatley medallist Ryan Semmel, who has kicked back-to-back hauls of five goals in the Hawks' past two games, Luke Semmel, Jake Semmel, Chris Gleeson, Josh Harris and Luke Jones all unavailable due to being based in Melbourne.

"They are all a big part of our senior side, but we also know when we played Leitchy last time without them (won by 127 points in round seven) that our system works well," Fiske said.

"On paper we'll look a bit undermanned in terms of our top end talent, but we know the group we have knows the way we want to play and this gives them an opportunity to show they are more than capable of playing good senior footy."

One of the Hawks' young players who will get an opportunity at senior level is Zandyr Barilari, who has earned a call-up for his second game of the season.

"He performed really well in the seniors last time he played against Leitchy, so we're looking forward to giving him another opportunity," Fiske said.

"We're really fortunate to have a lot of good kids coming through who are in that 18-19 age group."

While the Hawks are now out of the finals equation, the third-placed Bulldogs (8-3) are building towards their 11th-straight finals campaign.

Like the Hawks, the reigning premier Bulldogs have won their previous two games by big margins against Elmore by 129 points and Heathcote by 115.

Meanwhile, it will be a milestone day for Leitchville-Gunbower ruckman Lee Pollock when he plays his 200^th club game for the Bombers against White Hills.

Pollock is a dual premiership player with the Bombers in 2017 and 2018 and a senior best and fairest winner in 2005 and recently ticked over the 350 senior game career milestone having also had stints at St Arnaud, Cohuna, Kerang, Wakool (premiership in 2013) and Koondrook-Barham.

Saturday's HDFNL games - Leitchville-Gunbower v White Hills, LBU v Heathcote, Colbinabbin v Elmore, Huntly v North Bendigo. Mount Pleasant bye.

Bears Lagoon-Serpentine and Pyramid Hill will get a look at each other on Saturday before they battle for survival in the Loddon Valley league's elimination final eight days later.

The Bears (5th) host the Bulldogs (4th) in Saturday's final round and regardless of the result - or any other in round 18 - they are locked into an elimination final against each other.

Which poses the obvious question of how do the two sides approach the contest in terms of just hoping to get through unscathed and leave some element of surprise for the following week when it matters most, or use the dead rubber as an opportunity to land a psychological blow with an all-out attack at full throttle?

"It's probably a little bit of both, to be honest," Bears coach Greg Gadsden said.

"You obviously want to get through the game unscathed without any injuries so there's no issues the following week, but at the same time you probably want to have that psychological edge as well if you can get it so you can go into the next week with a bit of confidence.

"It's a strange scenario where it's almost like, why bother, you may as well just play next week, but it's going to be good for the guys to get a run because we've obviously had a fairly interrupted past five or six weeks.

"No matter what training you do, there's nothing like the physical contest of a game."

Although there are no stakes riding on the game in terms of finals ramifications for either team, Gadsden says what this season has shown is with what have now been five rounds lost to COVID lockdowns, every opportunity to get out and play should be cherished and not taken for granted.

"It's very important for people's mental health to be able to participate in sport being such a big part of our livelihood," Gadsden said.

"It's vitally important we get our communities right again so they can participate in local sport. It has been a big positive to get competitions going again this year."

The Bears, who are 5-5 and coming off an 83-point loss to Marong in their last game a fortnight ago, don't have any Melbourne-based players who are unable to play on Saturday due to travel restrictions, but will be without key defender Ryan Prendergast, who is based in New South Wales.

Saturday's final round of the LVFNL season features four of the top five teams pitted against each other.

As well as the clash between the Bears and Bulldogs, the home and away season also closes out with a battle of first versus second when the undefeated Mitiamo hosts Bridgewater.

Saturday's LVFNL games - Inglewood v Maiden Gully YCW, Mitiamo v Bridgewater, BL-Serpentine v Pyramid Hill, Newbridge v Marong. Calivil United bye.

Sea Lake Nandaly coach Joel Donnan has no concerns about his players' motivation levels waning as the Tigers endure a massive break between games in the North Central league.

When the Tigers take to the field on August 28 for the second semi-final against either Wedderburn or Birchip-Watchem - depending on who wins their clash on Saturday - it will have been 49 days between games.

Since the Tigers last played on July 10 when they beat Charlton by 44 points, the NCFL abandoned its games on July 17 and July 24 due to lockdown, Wycheproof-Narraport forfeited against Sea Lake Nandaly on July 31 before another abandoned round on August 7.

The Tigers were due to play Donald on Saturday in the final round, but with the Royals forfeiting both their seniors and reserves because of a lack of players due to the Melbourne travel restrictions, Sea Lake Nandaly is again missing out on a game before another weekend off next Saturday ahead of the finals.

"What has happened is out of our control. We can't do anything about the setbacks, but we're in a good mindset of just being able to control what we can control and prepare the best we can," Donnan said.

"We've been getting really good numbers on the track when we've been able to train, but probably the hardest part has been missing out on that social interaction you have after games."

There are only two NCFL senior games in Saturday's final round, with Wycheproof-Narraport also forfeiting to Boort due to no crowds being permitted to games again this weekend.

Saturday's NCFL games - Charlton v St Arnaud, Birchip-Watchem v Wedderburn.

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