MGFNL Season 2026 - Round 10 Preview

If we use the Round Ten MGFNL ladder as a guide, we should be in for a series of incredibly close games this week. The round sees first placed Foster play fourth placed MDU while tenth placed Stony Creek welcomes eleventh placed Boolarra to town before a couple of crucial midtable clashes between team’s six (Tarwin) seven (Thorpdale) <insert hand gestures here> and finally fifth placed Hill End and eighth placed Newborough. It is a bit harder to mount a case for Mirboo North and Yinnar being close and similarly Fisch Creek look to have too much fire power for Toora but first things first, Foster and MDU. 

Foster v MDU

Top of the table Foster kept their winning streak alive last week, just. On the back of a Brett Eddy master class they were able to get over the top of Yinnar kicking the winner with under a minute to play. MDU meanwhile shook off a pesky Thorpdale kicking eleven goals to five after the main break to get the better of the ‘Dales by forty-five points. Taking a line through Thorpdale emphasises just how close this game might well be with Foster beating Thorpy by fifty-three points when they met earlier this year. It won’t be considered sharing state secrets to say that MDU will need to shut down Brett Eddy to be any chance of the upset. He was in amazing form leading into last week’s game coming off bags of six and eighteen but arguably went one better kicking seven of his sides ten against Yinnar. And he did it against some seriously good opponents too. Good luck to whomever MDU Coach Rhett Kelly hands the task to this week! Interestingly Foster started Jack Rathjen in the ruck last week and played Mitch Allot off the bench- a nice luxury to have. Rathjen was terrific in the ruck battles and his athleticism around the ground added to the already stacked Foster on ball brigade of Norton, Schnieder, Angwin and Weston. MDU too have a raft of mid’s they can throw through the middle and with a series of key forwards all capable of hitting the scoreboard, such as Kerr, Nagel and McRae the Demons will be sure to keep Fosters’ tall defenders in Wray, Bentley and Morris busy. Bentley in particular is a watch. Last week as he started to show some of the dare and dash he has in spades across half back. At one stage he made an impossible kick look easy and opened Yinnar up with a daring kick across half back that led to a goal. When it is all said and done though Foster are the best side in it so if they play their best they should win. The key here for MDU is to prevent that from happening. And if Kelly can get his middle six to break even with their Foster counterparts who knows MDU just might do what no one else has been able to do this season. 

Mirboo North v Yinnar

Simply put Yinnar have too much talent and too much to play for to be dropping this one to Mirboo North. I can’t definitively say that if they’d beaten Foster last week Yinnar would’ve gone into this game a little less hungry but the circumstances in which they lost will see them wanting to blow Mirboo North off the park- beware the angry Magpie isn’t just a warning for kids walking to school in Spring! The hometown Tigers have been much better on their own turf than on the road this year and in their most recent local derby against Boolarra put in their best performance of the season. In having said that I suspect even a repeat of that performance sees them come up short against Yinnar. Skipper Hudson Kerr has been in white hot form so far this year and with Sam McCulloch unlikely to tag him this week we can expect to see another ripping game from him however he is simply battling too many on his own week in week out. Yinnar to get the job done comfortably after a first quarter arm wrestle. 

Stony Creek v Boolarra

When these sides met at Stony Creek last year it was a hats off, chain the dog to the fence kind of day as the wind howled across the ground leading to a low scoring, dour game. Despite both teams holding positions in the lower areas of the ladder fair conditions this week should see some bloody good footy played. Both sides have an excellent crew of onballers and a forward (or two in Stony Creek’s case) capable of kicking a bag of goals.  Loughridge, Bernaldo and a pair of Stones lead the way through the Creek midfield and will battle it out with Matt Dyer, and the Mason’s, coach Bredan, his brother Joel and co-captain Porykali who has been a sensation since being freed up from his regular role in the back six this season. The battle between Tim Rieski, Boolarra’s full back- who somehow kicked a goal last week- and Stony Creek’s sharp-shooter Luke Firth will go a long way to deciding this game. If Firth can slot four or more the Creek could be looking at their second win in three outings while if the man they call Hot Dogs can keepFirth to only a couple of snags the Demons could well go back to back. Team Hot Dogs here, Boolarra by twenty points and Firth to only get three!   

Tarwin v Thorpdale

A huge clash where both teams’ finals aspirations will be tested coming off substandard performances. Thorpy played one good quarter of footy last week in going down to MDU while Tarwin appear to have forgotten to come out of the sheds until half time in their loss to lowly Boolarra. The first quarter could be telling in this clash. Last week Tarwin failed to trouble the scorers while conceding fourteen scoring shots to their opponents. Meanwhile Thorpy fared only marginally better as they too failed to trouble the scorers but at least they only gave up eight scoring shots to MDU. Fair to say the opening term this week will be hot with both coaches having their sides ready to rock and roll from the first bounce! And motivation won’t be hard to come by with both sides in a ding-dong battle for a finals berth with a couple of other sides. Matt Powell will likely have Jordan Staley for company in the Thorpy front half while the ‘Dales coach Daniel Taylor may go to James Holland-Birch in an attempt to curtail the influence of Troy Harley in the Sharks front half. The “hyphen” has played the key defensive post before and has the engine to go with Harley who can get right up the ground at times seeking the footy.  One area the sides both have depth in is in the middle of the ground. Tarwin can use any of Garnham, Ellen, Bertacco, Yann or Williams in the engine room with Thorpy countering with Pattern, Ramm, a Patullo or two as well as the ageless and ever reliable Shannon Pickering. A ripper battle with plenty to play for. Tarwin coming off back to back losses, Thorpy having dropped three in a row, both potentially playing for their seasons….. Tarwin, maybe? Just? Tarwin at home seems like as good a reason as any. 

Hill End v Newborough

The second of the rounds mid-table battles with huge finals ramifications sees Hill End welcome Newborough to town. In many ways this is a game that has been in the making since November last season. With Tom Hallinan the new Hill End coach recruiting far and wide the Rovers made no secret of the fact they were set on moving into the top six and playing finals. And Newborough under Pat Frendo targeted the gaps he identified from his first season in charge last year and filled those with a view to also getting the Dogs barking in the post season. So here it is, the game that could well decide which, if either, of these sides gets to taste finals footy. I have the slightest of leanings to Hill End as their performance way back at the start of the season versus a very good Fish Creek sticks with me as that of a side on the cusp of something. And with a few more games under their belts as a group since that I think the Hill Men get it done. If, like me, you cannot be at the ground Saturday you can tune into Gippsland FM’s live and exclusive coverage from 14:00 to find out who gets the job done. 

Toora v Fish Creek

Coming off the bye Toora get a nasty old wake-up call when they come up against the league’s second best side, Fish Creek. Unfortunately for Toora it is impossible to see anything other than a rather large win for the Kangaroos. Of particular interest however will be the team Fishy run out with. Some serious footballers have played in their lunch time league game of late with names like Piasante, Steffani and Berryman listed on the early game team sheet. 

Morwell East have the bye this week.