The Saints vaulted into third position with a win against the Southern Mallee Giants in round 16 and will set up another meeting against the side if it can overcome Minyip-Murtoa.

If the Burras are able to reverse their wavering form in the final round to cause an upset Ararat would face the Giants in the qualifying final, while the Saints would face Warrack Eagles in an elimination final.

Saints coach Luke Fisher said everyone had been on the line for his side for the past three weeks.

“The stakes really haven’t changed that much for us,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago we were playing for our spot in the finals and now it’s about continuing to win or face an elimination final.”

The Saints are hopeful that Alexander McRae and Ben Martin will return from injury for the match. McRae has been on the sidelines since the side’s game against Ararat in round 11 while Martin has missed the side’s past two games and has played just nine for the season.

“They’ll be important parts in our campaign so we want to get them in as soon as we can,” Fisher said.

“That’s also part of the reason why the second chance could be so important to us – we have got guys coming back from injury who will only get better with every game they play.”

While the Burras will not be playing finals coach Damian Cameron said the side would relish the opportunity to have an impact on how things play out in September.

“Every time you go out you want to win but that does offer us a bit more incentive to go out there, finish on a bit of a high and stir the pot for the other finals teams,” he said.

“In order to do that we’ll need to find avenues to goal. The Saints are really good at keeping the opposition to low scores so if we can move freely through the forward line it will help a lot.”

The Burras are likely to field a similar side to the one that fell short against Stawell but Cameron is hopeful there could be some inclusions.

“I think it will be all about setting up a little bit better than we have done in the past against the Saints,” he said. “They like bottling it up so we need to try and keep things open by hitting targets rather than just kicking long.”

Fisher said despite the Burras form falling away in the second half of the season he was still war of the challenge the side would provide.

“They’ve still got some good players and with the potential to shape finals we need to treat them just like any other side,” he said.

“We also want to make sure we work on making sure we put them away if we get the opportunity – we didn’t do that last round.”

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