Is BFNL round 11 Redan's time to shine?

Set to field its best team of the year, and up against a team who knows it needs to be wary of an emotional let-down after last week's shocks, the opportunity exists for Redan to stamp itself as a genuine finals challenger.

The Lions are locked in a four-way battle for the last spot in the finals. Ballarat is injury hit, Bacchus Marsh will also be understrength when it meets the red-hot East Point and Sebastopol has the bye.

One of those sides will need to knock off a team above them in the run home, is there any better chance for a club than Redan has this weekend?

Coach Gary Learmonth sees this as a huge opportunity for his team to show what it is capable of.

"They are obviously a very good side, they are very mature, it's hard to see where there is a weakness," he said.

"For us, we've just got to be consistent, we've got an opportunity in the ruck with both our rucks playing this week, Harry Lawson also comes back from the Rebels, he's been playing some good football. We lose Riley Collins which will be disappointing however.

"Our forward line is obviously our strength, we've got to make sure we get it down like we did last week.

Cold and likely wet weather could also play into Redan's hands.

"I'm not sure how much teams like to travel up to Ballarat when it's wet and cold, but no matter what happens, we need to be clean with the footy and use it well."

For Melton's Troy Scoble, the potential for an emotional let-down is at the front of his mind.

"Things are slowly getting better, we've really only been together on the Tuesday as one, but we'll have our big session on the track tonight," he said.

"It's going to be another challenge for us to go up there. We've had a pretty good run with the weather, but we've got no doubt it'll be a tricky game, they are in some great form at the minute.

"Any of those sides that are in that six, seven, eight position are going to look to try and get someone above them. I've always rated Redan highly coming into the season, the list has some real quality.

"Right now we're not sure how we're going to front up any week. Obviously there was a lot of raw emotion last week, that hasn't gone as yet, we're a week-to-week for us to manage. I've certainly seen it before where a team has had a really high level of energy and emotion, and you can have the deflation the following week, it's something we really have to guard against."

THE FINAL MOMENTS OF SUNBURY v MELTON

Whereas last weekend there were four games that could have gone either way, this week, on paper at least, looks more straight forward with the top five sides all playing clubs all up against teams below them.

The only top six clash is the one between Sunbury and Ballarat with the injury-hit Swans hanging onto sixth place by their fingertips

Ballarat coach Chris Maple his team was in a tough position at the moment.

"Across the first and seconds we lost about six players, I think the current count is 24 or 25 unavailable across the three teams due to injury or sickness," he said.

"The senior side isn't affected too much from last week, but there's about eight or nine down from the round one side."

He said a chance go up against a quality opponent in Sunbury could not be taken for granted.

"I don't think our form has been all that bad, last week we were level at half time, we should have been well up at quarter time," he said.

"We've just got to continue to play our way, force the pressure and mistakes and who knows what happens. Destiny is always in your own hands."

Sunbury coach Matt White says his team has a lot to work on after last weekend's defeat, suggesting they need to be win the game, rather than try and save it.

"Righting the wrong from last week is probably the best way to put it," he said. "To have a 20-point lead halfway through the third quarter and let it fall at the end was disappointing.

"I think one we got up, the boys have felt they could just hold it, I definitely have a different mentality, we went a bit safe with our ball movement, we went through all this on Tuesday and hopefully we'll be better for it at the weekend."

There might be a slight danger for Darley in the clash against Lake Wendouree. The Devils are far from ramped up and while they can expect to bring in a few players this week, with another bye next week, they won't be at their best until the final weeks of the season.

Coach Dan Jordan says he knows what to expect from Lake Wendouree.

"I actually think they should have a few more wins, they could easily have beaten Bacchus Marsh early on and I think they should have beaten Redan when they played them do," he said.

"They're going well. They played well last game and I think they'll get a lot of confidence out of that."

The Lakers are coming off their first win of the season and are well rested having had a bye last round.

Lakers coach Rohan Brown.said the freshen up looked to have assisted his side.

"We treat it like every other game, it's a really good test for us as a club to test ourselves against a quality side, we'll go there, play our brand of footy, and hopefully it's a positive outcome for us.

"We're still a test on Linc Koliba, he got a knock to the shin last week and Harley Hicks I think has the exact same injury, not sure whether we'll have those two.

"Last time out definitely has given us some confidence, there's a real positive vibe around the club at the moment, we did really well two weeks ago, trained well on Tuesday and we'll be up-and-about again. It's exciting to test yourself against the best."

East Point looks to have the overall strength to be able to defeat Bacchus Marsh who could be without six of their best players including Tyson Shea, who will miss four to six weeks with a broken jaw while ruck Luke Goetz will have to do a lot right at training to be selection.

The final clash sees North Ballarat travel to play Melton South.

The Roosters are desperate for a kill and need to start putting the score on the board. They are labour intensive at the moment, managing just nine scoring shots against East Point last round.

This is their chance to get some flow into their game against a Panthers side which is continuing to struggle to put a score on the board.