Seven CAW provincial teams start scramble for five spots in finals

As it stands with six rounds left, runaway leaders North Albury is the only certainty, barring a near winless run home.

Just a win and a half separates second-placed Wodonga on 51 and eighth-placed Corowa on 42.

Two wins for any of those outfits will consolidate their finals berth, but successive losses will proved difficult to overcome.

"It's just getting to a point where you just have to win every game, you can't afford to slip because a couple of losses on the trot will make it really hard in the final rounds," Lavington all-rounder Chris Galvin explained.

The Panthers are one of the teams in the firing line for finals.

Lavington hasn't missed finals since 2008-09, racking up 11 straight campaigns.

But a slow start has jeopardised the club's hopes, although it only sits out of the top six on percentage.

A left-hand bat, who's made 171 runs at 19 floating between three and seven, Galvin has worked hard on his medium pace bowling since playing third grade at NSW Premier club Northern District in 2018-19.

"I was trying to give myself as many strings to the bow as possible," he offered.

'I never really used to get much of a bowl in our team (at Lavington) because obviously we've got a really quality side with fast bowlers, so I'd just work really hard in the nets and learn off them.

"Whenever an opportunity came up, I'd really try and seize it because you didn't get too many opportunities when you have the Brown (Ryan and Nathan) brothers, Daryl Tuffey and Dave Tassell."

Lavington is away to Tallangatta on Saturday, but hosts Wodonga in a blockbuster on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Corowa hosts a finals contender in Belvoir before hitting the road to cellar-dwellers Wodonga Raiders.

The competition's only newcomer this season has struggled to make runs.

Corowa has clocked up 1893, which of the eight teams in contention is the second lowest (Belvoir 1841).

"At this level (coming up from district) the guys bowl tighter lines and for long periods, so we need to mentally grit our teeth and we're doing a lot of one-on-one work, working out different scenarios so we can get the game back on our terms," batsman Damien Wilson said.

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Corowa has taken the most wickets, spearheaded by first-year coach Jarryd Hatton with 29 scalps at just 11, but it's also conceded the second most amount of runs (2152), although it has had only two washouts.

The ladder is: North Albury 63, Wodonga 51, Belvoir 51, East Albury 51, St Patrick's 48, Albury 45, Lavington 45, Corowa 42, New City 36, Tallangatta 24, Raiders 24.