What started as a weekend of opportunity finished with Kilsyth ending their chance at finishing with VYC’s best overall record, with their loss coupled with a Dandenong win ensuring the Rangers finish with the league’s top regular season mark. It’s not all bad news for Kilsyth, though; with Knox also losing on the weekend, the Cobras are locked into second place, guaranteeing home court advantage through the first two rounds of postseason play, while a loss before playoff time should have Godfrey’s men playing a little looser come next week.

Ahead for the men is a home battle with an improved Sherbrooke side, who enter on a four game win streak. The streaking Suns should pose a tough test to the Cobras, having defeated Dandenong earlier in the month. Kilsyth closes it’s regular season on Sunday, when they head to Hawthorn to take on the Magic. With the Magic in a battle for a second-place finish in the Watson Conference, they too will be gunning for the Cobras with playoff positioning on the line.

The Cobra women continued their late season surge with a 75-62 home win over Sandringham last Sunday, thanks to big games from Taylah Black, Jenna Verhoef-Jenkins, Hannah Taulien and Brooke McGurgan. Winners of four of their past five games, Ed Dunstan’s team is now on the cusp of a postseason berth, but will need some help to get there.

Currently tied with Eltham for fourth place in the Watson Conference, the Cobras have the misfortune of being on the wrong side of the tiebreaker with the Wildcats, meaning they will need to jump a game ahead of Eltham to top them in the conference standings. Currently sitting in third place is Ballarat, which leads both the Cobras and Wildcats by one game. However, a combination of a Ballarat loss and one Kilsyth win could see them finish in the top-four, while on the flip side, sixth placed Ringwood can also sneak in if they finish tied with the Cobras at 10-12.

With so many possible outcomes in play, the best case scenario for Dunstan’s women is to go 2-for-2 on the weekend, which would guarantee a playoff spot. That will be a tough task, though, with the Cobras facing the 15-5 Dandenong Rangers at home, before travelling to Hawthorn to take on the Magic on Sunday. With Hawthorn in a very similar position to Kilsyth, Sunday’s matchup should be a thriller, with the winner likely continuing their season while loser’s comes to an end.

The Cobra women tip-off a huge night for our VYC teams tomorrow night, taking on Dandenong at 6.00pm, with the men to follow against Sherbrooke at 8.00pm.