There’s something different in the air now, an arbitrary but distinct delineation between what came before and what lies ahead.

It can only mean one thing – welcome to finals.

The 2026 Ovens and King football finals commence this weekend, with absolute blockbuster clashes on the cards across Saturday and Sunday.

The senior postseason commences with the qualifying final between Bright and Moyhu at North Wangaratta, with the winner to take on Whorouly next week for a spot in the grand final.

Defending champions Bright are hot favourites to go deep in the postseason, with coach Michael Quirk commending the work the entire squad have been putting in.

“The bye round [round 20] has been good for us leading into the finals,” he said.

“We trained in Euroa on Saturday with our Melbourne-based boys.

“It was great to train in the daylight hours and work on some areas of our game and freshen up a bit, the vibe around both Sseniors and reserves is great at the moment as it should be at this time of the season.

“In regards to the double chance, it is a good thing to have up your sleeve come finals, but hopefully we don't have to use.”

When they last shared the field, the Mountain Men completely obliterated the Hoppers by 97 points in round 17, but it won’t be a walkover this time.

Moyhu has been on the hop in recent weeks, and Quirk will need some important players to pass fitness tests to be included on Saturday.

Captain Sam Dalbosco is recovering from a calf strain, having not played since the start of the month, while key defender Michael Elliott will hope to be cleared from concussion protocols.

“You can't take injured players into a final, so any player under an injury concern will have to prove themselves at training throughout the week,” he said.

“We will give them every opportunity to play, but if they aren't 100 per cent, they won't play.

"Moyhu have been in great form over the past month, beating North Wang and Greta, so having said that, there is no way we will be taking them lightly.”

After the dust settles on Saturday, the cutthroat nature of finals will come to the fore at Whorouly for the senior elimination final between Greta and North Wangaratta, with the loser to kiss their flag hopes goodbye.

In a wonderful twist of fate, this year’s joint-Clyde Baker medallists, Greta’s Cody Crawford and North Wangaratta’s Zak Sartore, will go head-to-head one week after claiming the league’s top honour.

North Wangaratta coach Corey Smith said while they let the chance for a double slip and now sit with no room for error, his team will respond.

“We’re up and about, it obviously could’ve went two ways against Moyhu a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

“We know where we’re at internally, we’ll welcome back some key pillars this week, but it’s now or never, we’ve made it hard for ourselves giving up the double chance.

“We’ll welcome back Sticksy [Kyle] McQuade, Jhye Devine and Sam Allen and possibly another one - they really stitch us up down the spine a fair bit.

“Greta might have a fair bit of experience there.

“Both sides were probably missing key players both times we’ve played – Frazer Judd didn’t play either time and we had a few out last time we played – so it’s going to come down to the wire.

“We’re not going to underestimate them, I think the [top] five is pretty solid and any of the five can make it to the last day of the year.”

Be sure to get out and support finals footy across Saturday at North Wangaratta and Sunday at Whorouly, with reserves footy from 12pm and seniors from 2pm.