Thomastown knows its finals hopes is in its own hands.
With two rounds of the Northern Football League division 2 season, the Bears sit fifth only outside the top four on percentage.
If the Bears can win their last two games against ladder leaders North Heidelberg and fourth placed Lower Plenty, they will play finals.
Bears’ coach Ben Chapman knows they have a challenge ahead, but backed his side to throw everything at it.
“If we win two remaining games, we make finals,” he said. “If we get beaten this week we are done.
“If it doesn’t pan out, from a club and coach point of view, I’ve been really proud of the efforts so far.
“After round five people were saying the top four was set and we’re still alive at round 17.
“We’re doing a fair bit to prove some critics wrong.”
Chapman said making the side’s task even harder, was a growing injury and unavailability list. He said they didn’t think they would be in the position they were in with the number of players missing games.
“The injury list keeps growing and we’ve had a number of players overseas for the majority of the season.
“Last week we had four best and fairest winners unavailable for a numerous reasons.
“They leave a hole… Daniel Chadwick hasn’t played since round nine and he would have been leading our best and fairest award.
“Trying to replace them is difficult. It’s creating opportunities for other players who are doing the right things.”
Despite missing several big stars, the Bears pushed third places Fitzroy Stars all the way on Saturday.
The Bears hit the front in the last quarter, but couldn’t hold on losing 13.22 (100)-12.14 (86).
Chapman said he couldn’t question the side’s endeavour.
“We had our chances…. but ultimately couldn’t finish it off.
“It was a disappointing loss as we were really good for long periods of time.
“I’m really proud of the efforts.”
The task doesn’t get any easier, with Bears to face ladder leaders North Heidelberg.
Chapman said it would be a good opportunity for the side to test itself against a side with Brent and Shane Harvey.
“They’ve beaten us quite comprehensively twice this year,” he said.
“Both have been able to have impact of games and hard to stop.
“Boomer has missed the last couple of games, it would be nice if he missed another week. It’s a learning curve for our players to be playing against that calibre of players.
Chapman said whether they finished fourth or fifth, the club had made massive inroads after struggling in 2016.
“The foundations have been built,” he said.
“It’s been a step in the right direction.”
