The league announced on Tuesday it would push back its final series after Victoria's "circuit-breaker" COVID-19 lockdown came into place ahead of the scheduled preliminary finals last weekend.
The preliminary finals will now be contested at Tatura Park on Sunday, June 20 with the league vote count and presentations to follow at The Peppermill Hotel from 6.30pm.
The final two teams will then return to Tatura Park a week later (June 27) to play off for the premiership.
Echuca coach Damien Dalziel said the finals reshuffle was the best outcome for clubs under the circumstances.
“It was disappointing,” he said of the lockdown.
“We trained well the week before (the preliminary final against Tatura) and we were ready to go, then all of a sudden you get the news, but these things are out of our control when we have these lockdowns.
“There were a few proposals put forth for recommencement, but coming out of lockdown and having a final this weekend, myself and a few coaches didn't think that was good because you have nine days of not really doing any training to go straight into a final.
“Then the Queen's Birthday weekend made it hard. People have things organised.
“Missing out on three weekends of footy is hard, but at the end of the day, you've done the hard work to get to finals, you don't want to fast track it because people want to play finals and get it over and done with.
“The dates give us a couple weeks to train and we're probably used to it more than others, having byes and missing weeks.
“We'll hopefully get back into it on Monday night, have two solid weeks of training then into the finals.”
After topping the regular season ladder, Echuca will face fourth-placed Tatura at 3pm on June 20 for a spot in the grand final. Nathalia and Benalla will play off from 1pm.
And though they easily beat the Bulldogs twice in the home-and-away season, Dalziel said his team was under no illusion the preliminary final would be a formality as his team vies for its second consecutive grand final appearance.
“We don't have to backtrack, but just have to pick up where we left off,” he said.
“We've got to reset and work on a little bit of fitness to start off and then hone in on Tat.
“We've got to set ourselves to beat them before we can worry about the week later.”
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