HAVING battled against the odds all season to finish in the BFNL top five, Sandhurst is finally now poised to play finals after its hard-fought 23-point win over Kyneton on Saturday.

While the BFNL finals don't officially start for a fortnight, the reality is Saturday's clash at the QEO was as good as an elimination final for the Dragons and Tigers.

Barring any major upsets in next week's round 18, the stakes for both teams couldn't have been higher as far as a home and away game is concerned - the winner will play finals; the loser is done and dusted.

Given what was on the line, the contest - that certainly had a finals feel on and off the ground to it - couldn't have been set up any better at three quarter-time with the Tigers leading by one point.

But it was the Dragons who having surrendered the momentum in the third quarter regained it in the final term to kick away and win 11.14 (80) to 8.9 (57).

As a result, Sandhurst (36 pts, 129.2%) moves from sixth to fifth, while Kyneton (36 pts, 116.1%) has dropped from fourth to seventh.

"We spoke to the boys during the week that probably three or four weeks ago it looked it (finals) wouldn't be in our hands," Sandhurst coach Ashley Connick said.

"But their resilience to just keep going and persisting and get ourselves into the position now where we could get the ball in our court today is something we wanted to capitalise on and I thought the boys were sensational."

The game was set up for a pulsating final term after the Tigers had fought back from 15 points down at three quarter-time to led by one point at the final change, 6.7 to 5.12.

The Tigers had an early chance to kick the crucial first goal of the last quarter when tall Jake Summers had a 40m set-shot, but could only muster a behind.

From the kick-in the Dragons were able to transition the ball into their forward 50 where X-factor Cobi Maxted won a holding the ball free-kick against opponent Harrison Huntley - the pair having had an absorbing duel throughout.

Maxted nailed the goal to give the Dragons a four-point lead.

Soon after followed another key moment of the final term when Huntley pushed forward and looked set to launch a shot at goal from 50.

However, the kick was smothered by tenacious Dragons' defender Isaac Carracher, with that defensive act leading to a Maxted mark and goal down the other end that pushed the Sandhurst advantage out to 10 points.

With Sandhurst's tails up and momentum behind it, gun forward Maxted again delivered when he was the recipient of a downfield free-kick paid against Louis Phillips for a late infringement on Alex Wharton.

From 25m Maxted kicked his third of the final quarter and sixth of the match.

The Dragons' lead then extended to 24 points at the 15-minute mark when Blair Holmes, who had a huge last quarter with some strong tackles, marked 30m out and converted the set-shot.

At that stage the Dragons had kicked 4.2 to 0.1 for the quarter and capitalising on the work of hugely influential ruckman Hamish Hosking (30 disposals, 51 hit-outs, 22 clearances) were 4-1 out of the centre square.

But just as the Dragons looked poised to run away with the contest, the Tigers responded with two goals in quick succession.

The first from Angus Nolte 40m out on the boundary that ended up torpedoing through came from a deliberate out of bounds free-kick against the Dragons.

The second goal was kicked by dynamic mid/forward Cameron Manuel after he received a handball from Cody Young and unleashed from 50m.

The pair of goals brought the Tigers back within 12 points at the 18-minute mark and still with plenty of time to continue their surge.

However, Sandhurst's Harvey Gallagher put a stop to that with back-to-back goals to ice the game.

The first came from one of the plays of the game when Sandhurst's James Coghlan took a flying mark 50m out from a Kyneton kick-in after Hosking had kicked the ball out on the full.

Having soared for the mark and played on, Coghlan sent the ball deep into the goalsquare where Gallagher marked and goaled.

Two minutes later Gallagher marked again 45m out on the Rifle Brigade flank and in front of a large contingent of Sandhurst supporters went back and slotted a ripper goal to kill off the game and propel the Dragons now into a likely elimination final against South Bendigo.

Earlier, to summarise the first three quarters the opening term was evenly contested with both sides kicking two goals apiece.

The second quarter was dominated by Sandhurst, but not capitalised on the scoreboard, with the Dragons scoring 3.8 to the Tigers' 2.0.

The third quarter was then played on Kyneton's terms, with the Tigers' dominating possession and territory, but also squandering opportunities, kicking 2.5 to the Dragons' 0.1 to edge in front at the final change.

The Dragons were a rotation down from the nine-minute mark of the third quarter after classy mid/forward Jeremy Rodi was concussed, ruling him out of next Saturday's match against Castlemaine.

Kyneton coach Paul Chapman said his side was both outworked and outplayed by the Dragons in the final quarter.

"We knew our season was certainly on the line and I'm proud of the way the boys fought it out," Chapman said.

"I feel there's so much more upside in what we're doing and we're developing a lot of good young kids, but we've got to be more consistent for longer."

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