MGFNL Season 2026 - Round 14 Preview

As we head into round fourteen of our thirteen club competition the ladder is as pure as it will ever be with each side having played twelve games. Each side has played each other once and each side has had their bye, so the ladder is as fair and equitable as it gets. And what interesting reading it makes.

We have a trio of senior sides, Foster, Fish Creek and Yinnar, that are wrestling for the coveted top two spots come seasons end. As it presently stands none of these spots are guaranteed but Foster, via their huge percentage, do appear to have a mortgage on one of these two positions.

They can of course convert that mortgage to full ownership on Saturday when they take on Fish Creek. A win would guarantee the reigning premiers top spot and leave Fish Creek and Yinnar to fight it out for second position.

Yinnar have the bye this week and will take the four points that come with watching on while readying themselves for a season defining clash the week after against Foster. So season defining in fact, it will likely decide which of the top three sides get the double chance.

Now if you think that was complex, wait until next week (or maybe the week after) when I try to decipher positions four through six on the ladder come the end of the home and away season…….

But back to this week, where all eyes will undoubtedly be on the top of the table clash between Fish Creek and Foster.

Fish Creek V Foster

The last time these sides met Foster jumped Fish Creek, kicking five goals to one to quarter time. And when the wet weather set in after that they got to enjoy a comfortable win over their nearest and dearest rivals with their 2025 Premiership Pennant flailing in the wind.

Much has changed since that day back in early April when round one was played, but many things remain the same too.

The rivalry certainly still remains. And the sides, as they were in season 2025, are still the best and second best in the competition. They’ve collectively dropped one game and amassed 2,976 “points for” between them whilst having the two best defensive records in the league.

Simply put this week’s match is going to be awesome!

Rather than tell you I think who will win and why just I am just going to list some of the unbelievable individual matchups you will see; or hear about on Gippsland FM 104.7’s coverage of the game.

Jake Best v Tom Valenta, Michael Cooke v Jack Hayes, Jackson Wiedemann v Tom Schneider, Rhett Wiedemann v Mitch Allott, Charlie Wilson V Liam Bentley, Jack Wesston v Luke Williams, Angus Norton V Brady Mitchell, Tom Cameron v Aaron Rhodes and the list goes on.

Simply put, can’t wait for this.

For the sake of the season, I am tipping Foster by a point. I mean, imagine getting to do all this again next week when Foster play Yinnar with the Pies, fresh off a bye, playing for second spot!

Boolarra v Thorpdale

When these two local rivals go head to head on Saturday one is playing to cement a finals berth and the other to do whatever they can do insert a stick in their opponent’s spokes on the way to the off-season. Thorpy got a decent old reality check last week when an unbelievably efficient Fish Creek took hold of them for the best part of four quarters. And while all that awas going on Boolarra had the bye and would this week hope to field one of their strongest line ups for the season.

With midfields that matchup pretty evenly, it is the respective forward halves that will be the worry for Boolarra. The unheralded Kieran Albanese was excellent for Thorpy taking advantage of the limited supply he had across half forward last week and Matt “Moose” Powell managed to clunk a few grabs even if his kicking radar wasn’t necessarily 100% aligned.

Tim Dowe has been manful in the ruck this year for Boolarra, but Gav Lowe was excellent last week in beating two Fish Creek opponents rucking mostly on his own. Him getting the ball to Ramm, Pickering and Pattern should ensure the requisite supply for the Thorpy lads to get the chocolates and keep their finals position for at least one more week.

Morwell East V Tarwin

They found a bit last week, the East. They hung with the leagues fourth placed side for three quarters and kicked their second highest score of the season. This is an absolute flashing red light, danger Will Robinoson, banana peel game for Tarwin.

While the East will be playing for pride and to ensure they do not ”win” the spoon Tarwin simply have to keep winning to stay in touch with the other finals contenders. They presently sit eighth but have a positive percentage and are only a win behind fourth.

You’d have to think with so much to play for they get the job done but stranger things have happened.

With Troy Harley providing a key pivot in the Sharks front half and kicking multiple goals himself in nine of his last ten games he will be central to the result. And with his partner in crime, Toby Mahoney having two bags of five and one of four this year the dual assault looms large for East. Not that it is all big men, Rem Dal pozo too has a couple of four goal games to his name.

The short answer is East need to make this a contest. An in close, hard fought game where their ten is potentially enough as if the likes of Kyle Yann and Jordan Bertacco get enough footy forward you’d have to think the Sharks get the job done.

Newborough v MDU

With just two points separating Newborough and MDU on the ladder (positions seventh and fourth respectively) this game means plenty to everyone. It is likely to be on from the first bounce until the final siren with the four points here likely to be the difference between one of these teams playing week one of the finals and the other selling raffle tickets of hot dogs muttering things like “that should’ve been us out there playing” as they do so.

When these teams met in Round One it was MDU easily, but much has changed since that day back at the start of April. MDU has been harder to read than Shakespear playing some terrific footy then dropping games to sides you think they’d handle comfortably. All the while the Dogs have keep chugging along.

Nothing flash about the Doggies but when you have twenty-one blokes committed to a cause you don’t need flash.

Pat Kerr and Nick Nagel, as so often has been the case this year, are the keys to an MDU win. They need to dominate the airways and then convert their opportunities. This is of course easier said than done when Newborough have Wade Anderson, Liam Fitzpatrick and Liam Cordner patrolling the back end of the field.

The Dogs will need to manufacture a score though so the likes of Josh Pearce, Peter Ainsworth and Jack Robinson will need to be up and about. I also get the feeling this is the kind of game Kyle Jennings will be up for. He will throw himself into everything around the ground but if he can find a way to get the

Sherrin trough the big sticks once or even twice it could well be the difference between a win and a loss, or more importantly finals or not.

As for a tip, genuinely no idea, call it a guess- MDU, maybe?

Toora v Mirboo North

In the only game of the round that won’t impact finals we could well see the biggest battle. In what has been a tough year for Toora in terms of senior footy the Pies find themselves at the bottom of the ladder with two realistic chances in front of them to chalk up a second win for the year, one of them being this week.

Mirboo North too have had a year they’d rather forget. After only missing out on finals in the last quarter of H&A footy last year the Tigers this year found themselves out of contention around six weeks before the end of the year. They have a few winnable games on the run home though and will fancy themselves here.

Both sides take pride in their engine rooms with Toora having team of the year contender Joshua Halsall as the centrepiece of their set-up with Mirboo North shouting “hold my beer” with Hudson Kerr also enjoying a stellar season.

If Halsall has Baker for company in the middle the Mirboo North mids will know they’ve had a game. He is averaging about forty-five touches in his two games this year Baker. With him riding shotgun, it also allows Toora to load up their front end with Sam Bright, Tex Dyson and Jon Pintus all plying in front of the footy.

For Mirboo North a lot will again depend on Kerr as he has not only been a midfield dynamo this year but also impacts the scoreboard, an area of the game where his side has struggled this season. If this is a low scoring ten goal game I think Mirboo North can grab a result. If however, Halsall and Baker get off the chain in the middle and Tex brings his kicking boots it could be Toora kicking a dozen plus and belting out the song for just the second time this season.

Byes

To ensure each team has two byes during the season. this week- and over the course of the next two weeks- three teams have a bye. This week Hill End, Stony Creek and Yinnar get to enjoy the day off.