Big V wrap: Warrnambool Seahawks, Mermaids turn attention to finals campaigns after strong finish to season

The Seahawks finished fifth on the ladder after a solid 93-82 win at home against Bulleen on Saturday night at the Arc, setting up an away elimination final against Pakenham this coming weekend.

The injured mentor said there was a steely determination, yet excitement about his group ahead of finals.

"There's a great feel around the group, we know our identity and how we need to play to really challenge at this time of the year," he said.

"It's exciting to be in finals officially, we can't wait to get into planning this week (to play Pakenham) and the boys are certainly confident we can get the job done."

Gynes said Saturday night's strong victory - which saw Seahawks champions Tim Gainey (350 games) and James Mitchell (200) notch up milestones - in front of a vocal home crowd, was the perfect tune-up for what's to come against the Warriors.

"It was a really good team effort, we're really pleased. We got out and ran which was good and made our shots," he said.

"We tried to play to our own tempo, we still had times where we could have been better and we'll work on that but overall I'm really happy."

He added it was a well-rounded team display but said there was several performers on the court who had a significant impact. The Seahawks will, however, be hoping for the best after Liam Osborne injured his knee in the win.

"It was a fantastic team effort but Ollie Bidmade was awesome again in the defensive end as he has been all year," he said.

"Riley Nicolson was fantastic again but I thought Harry McGorm was an x-factor, he came off the bench and played with a lot of energy and knocked down his open shots. He was really terrific for us."

With finals now the focus after finishing the home-and-away season with a terrific 13-7 win-loss record, Gynes said he would try and make sure the group remained focused at training.

"Preparation will be pretty similar for us this week and we're really looking forward to preparing for the game," he said.

Warrnambool Mermaids, meanwhile, will enjoy the week off to "rest some bodies" after clinching the division one women's minor premiership with back-to-back wins to cap off the home-and-away season.

The Lee Primmer-coached outfit did what it needed over the weekend, both at home against Warrandyte 72-43 on Saturday and on the road against Altona 67-61 on Sunday to finish with 14 wins and four losses and a first-placed finish.

"You get the double chance and we can rest some bodies now which is what we're after so it's great," Primmer said. "We were really, really good (against Warrandyte), to hold them to 43 points is awesome defensively and against Altona we let them get too many in the first half and then screwed down defensively after half-time and had the game on our terms."

Primmer said it was valuable to bank those wins and land some momentum ahead of a week off, knowing the real season is only beginning.

"We've won four in a row now so now we've just to go to get in some good training sessions this week, sit back a bit and see who we get to play in the semis," he said.

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