After 22 rounds of heated football and unforseen scandals, the Victorian Premier League home and away season is at a close.
Northcote City, managed to secure the minor premiership on Sunday, after winning 4-2 to Hume City, well deserved and as expected.
The Hercules boys will now have a week off before they meet with the winner of the qualifying final between the Melbourne Knights and Bentleigh Greens.
Round 22 finished with South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights back in the top positions of the ladder, while Port Melbourne Sharks were left behind despite great performances by Eric Vassiliadis’ boys. As their first debut season after 10 years out of VPL, the club should be very proud.
Now to Finals.
In a qualifying final match, Melbourne Knights will welcome Bentleigh Greens on Sunday. Last weekend, Knights suffered their first loss in five weeks, since round 18, when they met with Oakleigh Cannons (2-4). With second place already in their hands, it seemed that Knights were off to a slow start of the game they didn’t manage to take control of.
After being scheduled to travel to Southern Stars on Sunday, Bentleigh Greens decided to forfeit both seniors and U21s scheduled matches at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex. Instead, Anastasiadis boys finalised the last round with a friendly match against Melbourne Victory on Saturday and lost 1-0.
A healthy side will be heading into Sunday without injured midfielder Luke O’Dea, while Dane Milovanovic is a 50-50 prospect.
The winner of the Qualifying final will face Northcote next weekend.
The elimination final on Sunday will see South Melbourne host Green Gully at Lakeside on Sunday afternoon.
In what has been a rollercoaster season for both sides, South Melbourne and Green Gully saved their best form to enter the finals in the final round and play elimination final.
For Green Gully, it will be their 13th consecutive finals campaign, after a win at home over last seasons champions Dandenong (3-1).
Aware that only a win will take them into finals, South Melbourne came out of the last round with great and lucky 4-0 victory over Port Melbourne.
Port Melbourne will now have to wait another season for that chance.
In a tough game with Green Gully Cavaliers, South Melbourne will be chasing its first VPL title since 2006, with a confidence boost but probably still fighting nerves. Standing in South Melbourne’s way is a team with a perfect record at Lakeside Stadium in 2013
Both sides have a healthy list to choose from for Sunday’s encounter, but Green Gully will be without star defender Rodrigo Vargas who suffered a knee injury. For Cavalliers, it will be their fourth game in 17 days.
