A MAIDEN finals appearance will be on the line when Wagga City Wanderers travel to Canberra on Saturday.
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Wanderers coach Michael Babic has declared finals have started a week early as the Wanderers prepare to face fourth-placed Canberra White Eagles in the nation's capital.
There is a number of possibilities but the Wanderers' destiny is basically in their own hands. A win or a draw against White Eagles and the club will be playing senior finals for the first time.
A loss would open up the possibility of dropping out and their fate would depend on the result of Sunday's game between Yoogali and ANU. A Yoogali win and the Wanderers play finals.
"To me, I think it's pretty exciting because really, finals start this week," Babic said.
"It's not absolute knockout but the top four play-off, and potentially we could end up playing White Eagles again in the finals series somewhere. You want to go into it with confidence knowing you've performed well against them and got a good result.
"So there's a lot to play for this week."
The Wanderers ended a two-game losing streak with an 8-2 win over Narrabundah last Saturday. The scoreline looks good but Babic declared his team need to improve sharply on that performance if they want to down the White Eagles.
"We were very poor," he said.
"We were behind the bottom team. It was 3-2 at half-time and we only scored the third goal with the last kick before half-time. We were well below the standard we've set this year in the first half and in the second half we came out and switched it on.
"Overall, the performance was good enough to get the three points and put us in a good position with our goal difference but from my perspective, I'm not happy with the performance at all, even though we won it.
"Its not the standard or the level that we've played at all this year."
While Babic acknowledges they must improve, he is also a believer.
If the results go the Wanderers way this weekend and they qualify for finals, Babic is confident they have what it takes to go all the way.
"I think if we're going to go into the finals, realistically, I think we've shown it we can match with anyone and we're quite capable," he said.
"White Eagles will be a good test because they've had the opportunity to come and watch us, so they've had a look at us and they'll be ready for us.
"The other teams, I don't think we can't beat them but if we're going to do it we're going to have to play to our potential. If we can do that I think we've got as much as a chance as anyone remaining in the league that I've seen."
Grant Jenkins made his senior Wanderers debut last weekend, while Jacob Brooker made his first appearance of the season off the bench.
Babic hinted that Brooker could feature prominently in a potential finals campaign.
"He's starting to get fit now and he's a quality striker," he said.
"He's not too far away now and going into finals he could be a little surprise for the other teams that haven't seen him."
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