Riley Bouker, Simon Curtis and Matt Dussin shine in Myrtleford's win

Youngster Riley Bouker produced his greatest output at senior level with five goals, along with Ryley Sharp, while former co-captain Matt Dussin and ex-Lavington premiership coach Simon Curtis were sensational.

The Saints were out of the top five only a fortnight ago, but wins over Wodonga Raiders and the 20.13 (133) to 10.10 (70) away win over the Roos sealed fifth spot.

"I thought it came back to last week against Raiders, we had a disciplined performance and what we saw in the last three quarters was the discipline and the compliance came back," co-coach Jake Sharp explained.

The Saints had to topple the out of form and injury-hit home team to finish in the top five and the Roos jumped them to hold a 17-point break at quarter-time.

"We won the stoppages and the 50-50 ball, contested ball by about four or five and more inside 50s, but you could see in the first five minutes (of the second quarter), it was like hang on, 'we're playing for a spot in finals'," outgoing Roos' coach Peter German suggested.

With only one win in their last eight games heading into the final round, the Roos were sensational early, with promising 21-year-olds George Sandral and Kaelan Bradtke booting goals in the first six minutes.

The Saints suffered an injury blow when Elijah Wales did his right hamstring after 14 minutes, just four games back after missing seven weeks with a left hamstring complaint.

Despite the deficit, there were positives with Nick Warnock taking strong marks, while Curtis was clocking up possessions.

After only 30 seconds of the second term, gun Saints' midfielder Sam Martyn clutched his ribs and back after a kick in the centre of the ground and was coming off, but stayed to produce a blinding quarter.

However, Myrtleford was in danger of kicking itself out of the finals as Warnock. Murray Waite and Bouker missed attacking opportunities.

But the kicking suddenly clicked and the Saints rammed on five goals in 13 minutes to effectively end the match by half-time.

Curtis and Martyn kick-started the scoring when they combined to hand Waite a sitter and while Martyn had 22 touches, Curtis produced a game-high 37.

His passes to Warnock, Ryley Sharp and Kurt Aylett in the final term were almost indefensible.

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Midfielder Cameron Barrett (27 touches) and Jack Schilg were the Roos' best.

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