GLENGARRY moved another step closer in claiming their first premiership since 1996 after claiming the opening berth in the North Gippsland Football Netball League grand final last Saturday.

PRELIMINARY FINAL –HEYFIELD V ROSEDALE

The victory gives the Magpies a valuable extra week to recover from what was a bruising encounter against Heyfield.

The Magpies will eagerly watch from the sidelines as HEYFIELD looks to rebound and keep their premiership defence alive, but before then the Kangaroos need to topple ROSEDALE a side that has well and truly had their measure in 2013.

While the reigning premiers have had the tag of premiership favourites hanging over their head for the majority of the season, early pre-season predictions suggested Rosedale would possibly languish outside the top five. How wrong they were to be.

Starting the season strongly finding themselves pitted against Heyfield in the grand final replay in the opening clash, the Blues hit their straps to quickly demonstrate an impressive resurgence which saw them touted as one of the competition front runners.

It is this resurgence and the fact that the Blues are the only side to account for this week's opponents Heyfield on both occasions they have met this season that has Heyfield assistant coach Jesse Leeds under no illusion as to the challenge which waits.

"Rosedale is a good side who have had our measure throughout the year, however finals are a completely different ball game where anything can happen, it doesn't matter what happened during the year it's all about Saturday.

"We turned off at half time last Saturday against Glengarry up until that point we had been playing good footy and then we lapsed a little bit which gave them a sniff and they punished us as good sides will.

"It was a good hard fought game as finals should be, it was a real finals contest where the intensity was lifted to another level," said Leeds.

While the result didn't go to plan for the Kangaroos', Leeds knows the side can't get caught up in the "what if" and needs to focus on the second chance against the Blues.

"The result didn't go the way that we wanted, but that's why we worked hard to get the second chance so we now need to focus on the game at hand and hopefully come away with the goods.

"The first time we meet Rosedale we lost by two goals, we really kicked ourselves out of the contest scoring 16 behinds after controlling the ball for 70% of the game it was our errant kicking that cost us.

"Second time around we narrowly lost by a kick in a period where the side was in a real lull, we lost to Rosedale and Glengarry the following week and had about five to six games where we were playing poor opening halves," said Leeds.

While the results haven't gone the way of the Kanagaroos' this season against the Blues, Leeds notes that with a young side they don't look past the last game.

"The young guys don't think about the past they will come out fired up and like all of us know that this is our last chance.

"We need to concentrate on what we want and need to do, play to our game plan and go out on the front foot.

"It's going to be tough, but if we go out and play our style of footy and back ourselves it should go a long way were looking forward to it," said Leeds.

The Blues have hit their straps in past weeks and have been convincing in their two knock out final clashes over the past fortnight.

Coming into the contest on the back of a blistering 10 goal victory over TTU, the Blues are up and about and are confident that they can again make their way from fifth position to book a grand final berth as they did in 2010.

But before they can get too ahead of themselves, minor premiers Heyfield remain in the hunt for premiership glory and will be one almighty obstacle in Rosedale's way.

"Having beaten a side during the home and away season helps you mentally, but it is like the old cliché finals are a different ball game.

"Every time that we play Heyfield the guys get up and about, there is just something about the two sides so we need to make sure that we have the best side out there that can put together a four quarter effort that's required," said Leechino.

Complimentary on his side's composure and efforts in last week's cut throat final, Leechino will be looking for a greater effort from his chargers.

"The guys have known what's at stake each week, this week they will need to elevate their game to another level we will need a bigger effort, this is it there is plenty at stake.

"I won't be happy finishing third nor will the guys, we have won the two games to get to here and we have two more to win!

"There is a fair bit at stake for Heyfield also it's just not about us, they would have been gutted that they lost the way they did last week," said Leechino.

Noting that preparation will be the key during the week, Leechino has also conceded that there is likely to be some changes to this week's line-up noting that he was forced to make three changes ahead of last week's semi final clash.

With a minor tweak to on field personnel likely, a realist Leechino knows that past results will account for little on Saturday; three teams remain in the hunt for premiership glory with Heyfield just as keen to make their mark and keep their premiership defence alive.

In the RESERVES Heyfield advanced to the grand final and is awaiting the victor of this week's clash between TTU and Cowwarr.

THIRDS minor premiers Churchill advanced to their second grand final appearance in three seasons following the side's 27 point win over Cowwarr in their semi final clash.

Cowwarr will need to rebound strongly against Sale City who where ruthless in their attack on TTU, with the stage set for an epic contest.

By Lauren Carey