Glengarry Magpies and reigning premiers Sale City Bulldogs will square off in a mighty North Gippsland Football Netball League Grand Final clash at the Traralgon Recreation Reserve.

It has been a fairy tale season for GLENGARRY whose challenge for the Holy Grail came to life following a solid start which saw the Magpies dominate early claiming five straight victories.

Favoured by many to not only secure a grand final berth but to easily walk away with the title, SALE CITY's shock loss to Glengarry in the second semi final has seen the Dogs quickly fall out of favour by pundits.

Claiming 24 straight victories since captain Beau Wilson held the silverware aloft; the Magpies became one of only two teams in the past 12 months to defeat Sale City.

Minor Premiers Sale City now has the unenviable task of halting the Magpies if they are to claim back to back flags. City Coach Nick Hider isn't worried about his side going into the clash carrying the underdogs tag and perhaps will relish the pressure being placed on the opposition.

"It has been a challenging season, many expected us to play in the grand final and perhaps as a side we began to believe that too.

"We have tried to keep a lid on it, but it has been challenging, the pressure is certainly off us now that we have made it through and in many ways we are the underdogs with Glengarry knocking us off a fortnight ago," said Hider.

Noting that Glengarry has been the Dogs greatest rivals over the past two seasons, Hider knows his side will need to take their game to another level if they are to claim back to back titles.

"We didn't play as good as I would have liked on the weekend, but in saying that our intensity at the footy and around the packs was as good as it has been all season," said Hider.

"We know what level we need to be at to win, but we also know that we need our A graders to bring their best footy on Saturday.

"Glengarry have been our greatest rivals with the ledger standing at two all.

"We're under no illusions as to how good they are, our Achilles heal is our lack of height which they exposed in the semi, they have one of the best midfields going around and a number of speedsters who have hurt us in the past with their pace."

Taking a different path to September glory then last season, Hider notes that the solid hit out against Cowwarr last week has been an advantage on the back of a lack lustre six weeks.

"It's been an advantage to play the week before and be pushed right to the end in a solid tight contest, our previous six weeks weren't great so to be put under pressure the way that we were should put us in good stead.

"The reality is that we need to make up six goals from the last time that we played Glengarry, it's going to be a huge challenge we need to play at our best and make sure that we impose scoreboard pressure early," said Hider.

In his second year at the helm, Coach Josh King has taken his side from middle of the pack to one of the marquee teams in the competition.

One of three players who played in Glengarry's last Grand Final 11 seasons ago, King won't be making any drastic changes ahead of the weekend with the Magpie coach confident that his winning formula can see the side claim the chocolates.

"We won't be making any drastic changes, we feel that our performance was a convincing one in the semi final and one where the whole side played their role.

"We will spend some time obviously looking at matchups, where not getting too ahead of ourselves, the guys drew a lot of confidence from the win against them but we know that it wasn't their best side on paper.

"We know that they will come back firing, we need to be even better, they will step it up another notch and draw on the experience of having been in the same situation last year," said King.

Expecting his half back line to "ramp it up" having slowly dropped off in the second half of the season, Hider is expecting some big things from the competitions number one backline.

Led by full forward King, Mark Engley and Shaun Barnes the Magpies are damaging when on song and don't solely rely on their towering forwards.

The Magpies calling on several other dangerous targets in attack, Brad Smith is renowned for making the most of his opportunities in front of goal, crowd favourite Jack Robertson is renowned for running into an open goal and ruckman Aaron Winkler is damaging when resting in the forward line.

While goals are required to win the contest, many of the opposition coaches know too well the damage that both midfields can inflict, with the City engine room perhaps holding the edge over Glengarry.

League Team of the Year members, City coach Nick Hider, Stefan Mapleson, Jake Schuback and ruckman Matt Lutze can quickly turn a game and were instrumental in the side's preliminary final victory against Cowwarr.

But they are set to met classy opposition with the trio of Luke Forbes, Ryan Potter and Darren White the main instigators in Glengarry's dominance of the centre clearances throughout the final series.
The crowd can expect to be treated to a classic contest with a toss of the coin the best way to decide the victor.
In a prelude to the main event Heyfield and Glengarry will take centre stage in the RESERVES.

In a replay of second semi final action, the Magpies will be keen to reverse a 48 point loss as they meet the Kangaroos for the second time in a fortnight.

Holding strong in the preliminary final, the Magpies have the depth to match it with their more fancied opponent and will be confident of claiming a second reserves premiership in three seasons. Ironically the Magpies defeated the Kangaroos to claim their last flag in 2008.

Churchill THIRDS coach Rob Jellis will be at the helm of the young Cougars on Saturday.

It is a remarkable achievement for the Cougars who two seasons ago sat out the year due to a lack of player numbers in the under 18 side. From there the club has rebuilt from the ground up with the hard work of many behind the scenes rewarded with the side securing a grand final berth.

The ledger stands in favour of Glengarry this season, with the sides having only met the once back in round seven some 16 weeks ago. With their last encounter months earlier, it is hard to predict who will have the goods to claim the silverware.

By Lauren Carey