It’s highly unlikely the pair will move from fourth and fifth respectively with just the two games left.

Lavington hasn’t beaten a top five side this year and it will start underdogs in both the home game against the Pigeons and next week’s away match against unbeaten Albury.

Despite it being a dead rubber as such, the visitors say there’s no chance of taking it easy in order to save themselves for finals.

“We want to be winning, we won’t be playing around too much,” Yarrawonga defender Jake Wild said.

Wild’s father, Jason, was a premiership player with the Pigeons in 2006.

“When I was growing up, I saw how hard he worked on the track on his fitness, I took a lot out of that,” Wild said.

Jason Wild played a crucial element in the Pigeons’ rise from the whipping boys to a premiership force.

The rugged midfielder won the Did Simpson Medal for best on ground in that grand final win over Myrtleford.

The former Collingwood player produced a ferocious performance, launching himself like a missile at either the ball or opponent.

“He always told us go in hard for the footy, my brothers as well, if we weren’t going hard enough, he’d tell us about it, that’s for sure,” Wild said.

Like his fellow defender James Elliott, who’s also in his early 20s, Wild has improved markedly this season.

But it was a veteran backman who lifted Wild to his current fitness level, which has naturally played an integral role in his development.

“Scotty Oswald and I did a lot of extras in the pre-season, we did a lot of running sessions,” Wild said.

He played on Panthers’ captain Luke Garland when the teams met in one of the games of the season in round eight.

The Pigeons won a three-point thriller, but Wild could be forced to tackle one of home team’s bigger forwards given defender Logan Morey’s unavailability.

Morey is conducting a university study tour in Spain and won’t be home until the preliminary final on September 16.

There’s some good news though with VFL big man Lach Howe, who would battle Myrtleford’s Matt Dussin for the title of the league’s top ruckman, returning.

He will clash with Tim Hanna, who’s also back after a week out.

The Panthers have lost exciting brothers Noah and Elijah Amery.

Noah will play for the Murray Bushrangers against Gippsland Power, while 16-year-old Elijah is out with soreness.