With only three matches left in the Ovens and King home and away season, time is rapidly running out for the teams outside the top five to make up enough points to sneak in – but for some, that isn’t the be all and end all of the year.

Milawa currently sits sixth on the A grade ladder, two games out of finals contention behind Goorambat, needing the Bats to falter and their own formline to improve if they want to hit the court in the postseason.

However, Demons coach Kerrie Gray said ladder position isn’t what the squad will use to judge the success of their season.

“It’s a different season for Milawa, but I think there’s still lots and lots of success to celebrate and the end of the year,” she said.

“There are a lot of exciting things happening with the development of our younger players, we’ve had lots of our [under] 17s come up and debut in A grade and hold a spot in Bs.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve been unlucky, but we have been able to string together some really good netball, but we just haven’t been able to finish off on some of these tougher teams, we haven’t been able to knock them off, but our development throughout the year has been exceptional.”

The Demons have been a regular staple in netball finals for many years, particularly A grade, but Gray said they were shifting their mindset and building for the future.

“We kind of took that [finals] off the table - for a team that’s been really successful in the past and played finals for forever, I think it can be really challenging and really unhelpful if you have that mindset when things are different to what they’ve been,” she said.

“We’ve just taken that off the table, set our own goals each week because they change weekly based on who we’re up against, who we’ve got out on the court and what we want to achieve.

“The kids are our future, so we’ve got to invest some time.

“Sophie Weir has been outstanding, she’s a young kid who turned 18 in July and she’s improved out of sight with her composure.

“She runs through our midcourt, she’s one of our real success stories.

“Maiya Lea is a kid who’s still eligible for under 17s but we thought she’d get more out of her netball in B grade, and she’s absolutely risen to the challenge.

“We had Finlay Matassoni and a lot of our juniors train with the seniors, but Finlay’s stepped up and had a run in the A grade, just really good experience and great for the club.”

The young guns will likely have another chance to perform at the top level when the Demons head across to North Wangaratta for their round 18 fixture.

The Hawks are languishing at the bottom of the ladder with only a solitary win to their name from their 15 matches played.

Gray said they were expecting a challenge this Saturday.

“I think we had a tough tussle with them last time, and I’ve said this over the last few years, I don’t think it matters where you’re placed on the ladder,” she said.

“They’re probably in the same boat as us, probably haven’t gotten a few wins they could’ve had.

“They’ll play a really good brand of netball, and we’ll have to play a better one if we want the four points.”

The A grade match between Milawa and North Wangaratta commences from 2.30pm this Saturday at the North Wangaratta Recreation Reserve.

In other round 18 matches, Greta is at home to Benalla All Blacks, Bright take on Tarrawingee, Bonnie Doon look to resume their winning ways when they host King Valley, and Goorambat heads to Hopperland to play Moyhu.

Whorouly has the bye.