A BYE leading into finals sits well with Panmure coach Chris Bant.
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The Bulldogs secured their Warrnambool and District league top-five spot with a 16.13 (109) to 9.9 (63) victory against Russells Creek on Saturday.
They will play an elimination final on Sunday, August 18.
"To be honest, it (the week off) suits us because we've had tough contests for six or seven weeks," Bant said.
"We've had elimination finals every week. The week off will freshen the guys up.
"I'll give the boys next weekend off. We'll train pretty hard this week with no game on the weekend and then as normal next week to prepare."
Bant, who returned to the Kennel this season after a stint with Hampden league club Terang Mortlake, said it was pleasing to end the Bulldogs' finals drought.
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The club last featured in finals in 2014 when it finished atop the ladder.
"To be honest, we had one win last year and I didn't know what would happen," he said.
"I knew we'd improve but I didn't know by how much.
"When we were 0-3 I thought it would be an uphill battle but we won 10 of our next 13 games to get to this position. It's a good performance from the whole playing group."
Russells Creek started strongly and had a narrow four-point lead at quarter-time.
Panmure wrested the advantage in the second term to be eight points clear at the main break.
The Bulldogs piled on 10 goals to four in the second half.
"We started but as the game got rolling we played good footy in the second half," Bant said.
"He's in really good form at the moment," Bant said.
"He was in our best last week too."
Ruckman Kallan Melican was also influential.
Russells Creek coach Peter Timms lamented a third-quarter lapse.
"The third quarter has been our curse all year," he said.
"We keep stats and I reckon we're ranked second last in the competition for third quarters.
"We've tried to mix things up a bit at half-time.
"I think it comes down to a bit of fitness and not having a settled side."
Timms, who is signed on for 2020, said the Creekers would target talls in the off-season after Panmure's height "killed us".
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