Saints full-forward Matt Walsh says Souths are the team most likely to fill the last spot in the AFL Cairns finals after they pushed his side all the way on Saturday.
Saints 17.8 (110) defeated Cutters 9.16 (70) in what outsiders would consider a comfortable victory.
But what the scoreline doesn't show is that the Cutters, thanks to five goals in the first 10 minutes of the final quarter got within 10 points of the defending champions.
If they had kicked a little straighter they may have even gone ahead of them.
"They came out firing and we really had no answer there for that 10 or so minutes," Walsh said.
Souths, Manunda and Centrals are all within one win of each other fighting for fourth spot, but Walsh said it was the Cutters who had proven the toughest cover.
"They are definetly the team that has pushed us the most," he said. "They could have stolen that win on Saturday. They have a good bunch of up-and-coming players and if they could sneak into the finals it'd do them a lot of good."
Walsh took his season goal tally to 93, thanks to a 12-goal haul. It completed a big week that included coaching the Saint Augustine's under-14's to victory in the Gold Coast Suns Cup final at Metricon Stadium.
He said his personal success was only due to the dominance of his midfield. "They've been great this season and you can see when they don't dominate, like last weekend against Norths, I don't have the same opportunities," he said.
"So to kick a big bag against a top team like Norths is defintely the goal, hopefully it happens in the finals."
Walsh was the competition's highest goalkicker in 2012 with 131 majors.
Last Modified on 23/09/2013 15:34