ESSENDON
The last round of the regular season, and the VPL2 playoff picture is set to be decided.
The Royals travel to Campbell Reserve on Saturday afternoon sitting third in VPL2 on 47 points, level with Bayside Argonauts, and with a +7 goal difference advantage. Goulburn Valley Suns and Malvern City have the two automatic promotion places wrapped up. What is left is the play-offs for the third promotion slot, with third playing sixth and fourth playing fifth, before the two winners meet at Lakeside Stadium on the 19th of September.
A home tie in that first week is already banked, because nobody below fourth can reach the Royals. The question Saturday settles is who the Royals will face. Keilor Park are fifth – the only side in the division to have beaten the Royals twice this year, 1-0 in May and 4-1 at Cross Keys eight days ago. Box Hill are a point behind in sixth, having defeated Essendon 1-0 at Wembley Park earlier in the campaign, before the Royals emerged victors in the reverse fixture – Euan Mulhern netting a late winner in a 3-2 thriller at Cross Keys.
The arithmetic is not complicated. Match Bayside’s result against eighth-placed Springvale White Eagles, and third belongs to Essendon. Anything short of that, and the Argonauts will take the top seed.
Saturday’s opponents are a beleaguered outfit. Moreland City are rock bottom of the competition and already relegated, have won twice in twenty-five matches and conceded 71 goals, the most in the division by a distance. Moreland have suffered three successive relegations since their two-year stint in the top flight, and were beaten 7-1 at Whittlesea last time out.
The Royals took this fixture 3-1 at Cross Keys in May, and even with some expected rotations to the squad, Essendon are clear favourites.
Saturday 29 August, 3pm, Campbell Reserve. Three points and third place is sewn up.