A fifth straight grand final appearance will go on the line for Royals and Mt Barker when the two foes square off in the Albany and Districts Cricket Association A-grade preliminary final on Saturday.
The best two sides of the last five years will go to battle in another huge final, this time however not a grand final.
The Lions coughed up top spot and a grand final berth in the last round of the regular season and now face a refreshed Bulls outfit in their do or die preliminary final.
The Bulls will regain senior batsman Nathan Crosby and young spinner Lucas Baker, who didn’t play in the round 19 win over Railways.
Young talent Max Osborne, who now lives in Perth, will come out of the last Bulls side to take to the field.
The Lions are sweating on the fitness of key trio Mitch Green (calf), Harry Grigson (finger) and Jack Hastie (hamstring).
Green was on crutches at the end of the Lions round 20 loss to the Tigers while Hastie was dejected as he walked from the field after injuring himself bowling.
Grigson has a broken finger and hasn’t played since February 8.
The Bulls and Lions have faced off in the past four A-grade deciders, winning two titles each, but only one will progress this weekend to face the awaiting Tigers.
Bulls captain Jeremy Wood said three quality teams remain in the hunt for this season’s premiership.
“Anyone can win it, its poised pretty evenly I think,” he said.
“We’ve played some good cricket in the last month or so and it’s all pretty positive for us heading into finals.
“We’ve had even contributions from a few different people which has been nice.”
Despite the Lions injury concerns, the Bulls skipper knows Saturday’s blockbuster won’t be an easy one.
“When we couldn’t finish top we knew we were going to have to beat both of them to win it,” Wood said.
“That hasn’t changed for us . . . if we are good enough we will progress, if not we won’t.
“Royals have been the best side all year and that’s not going to change on Saturday, they have strong depth.
“If Greeny doesn’t play that will be a huge out, it will be sad really because he’s been the best player this year but they are still good enough to win and we won’t be taking them lightly.”
The Bulls have added pace bowler Mitch Jackson to their stocks in the second half of the year and Crosby’s return strengthens a batting line-up that contains Wood, Alex Fergie and Neil Ferreira along with the in-form Ryan Gaerth.
Lions skipper Green conceded it was unlikely their injured trio will face the Bulls.
“We will probably have two changes from last week, myself and (Jack) Hastie out,” he said.
“It is unlikely that Harry Grigson will play.
“We have 16 or 17 guys that have played A-grade all year.
“Lorcan McNamara is a premiership player and back in the frame and there is a couple of other guys in B-grade that will get an opportunity.”
The Lions have won just one of their last four one-day games and Green said doing the small things can help them reach another grand final.
“We’ve got to get back to basics,” Green said.
“We will lean on our finals experience, we have won semifinals and played in the last four grand finals.
“It will be a big challenge against Mt Barker but I think they bring out the best of us.
“We are going in as underdogs but have a strong, well put together side and I’m backing our boys to be really competitive and put pressure on that quality Mt Barker side.”
The ADCA first week of finals will begin this weekend, with games played on Saturday and Sunday in B-grade and C-grade.
Denmark and Manypeaks clash in the B-grade qualifying final at Turf East while Royals and Narrikup put their seasons on the line in the elimination final at Turf South, both on Saturday starting at noon.
The preliminary final will start at 11am at Turf East on Sunday.
In the C-grade Collingwood Park and Denmark meet in the qualifying final on Saturday at Hard North and Manypeaks host Royals at Proctor Oval in the elimination final on the same day, both starting at 12.30pm.
Hard North will be the venue of Sunday’s C-grade preliminary final from 11am.
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