The news Maitland City Council in conjunction with the NSW Health Department have ratified the Maitland Sportsground's status as a stadium lifting the crowd capacity at the venue to 2500 from 500 eased the pain of below-par 26-24 loss to Glebe Burwood Wolves on Sunday.

The loss, in what was effectively a dead rubber, had no affect on the Pickers claiming the minor premiership or hosting the fourth placed team in the home semi-final.

"We played a bit flat and to be honest it's nice to get the monkey off the back so to speak and not have people talk about can you go through the season undefeated," Pickers coach Matt Lantry said.

"The competition is alive and well and for the sides that finished in the top four it's game on. Any side can win if from where they sit.

"We would love a huge crows of Maitland fans to get behind us on Saturday.

"Finals are a completely different ball game and we can expect a really tough game against Hills who pushed us all the way in our game down there earlier in the season."

Tickets to Saturday's semi-final are $5 each and went on sale on the Maitland Pickers Facebook page from Sunday afternoon.

The winner of the Pickers and Bulls semi-final will face the winner from the Glebe and North Sydney semi-final in the grand final at Bankwest Stadium on Sunday, September 27.

Lantry said several players were below their best in Sunday's loss and there was plenty of room for improvement particularly in the middle third, where they had been beaten for the second week in a row.

"We were below our best and without making excuses I think there some emotional letdown after claiming the minor premiership last week in regards to the result not counting towards the standings on the ladder as we were always going to finish first," Lantry said.

"We were really disappointed in our effort areas. Just basic support play, line speed and we didn't handle the middle third overly well which was what I was disappointed in against Norths last week.

"We lacked energy across the board in our performance.

"Not enough players brought their best game and if it's the same again next week the cost is far greater - it's season over."

Both sides scored four tries, with a penalty goal in the 74^th minute to Glebe proving the difference after they led 18-16 at half-time.

Brock Lamb and his Wolves counterpart Addison Demetriou both landed three of four conversions. Lamb kicked one penalty goal and Demetriou two.

The Pickers opened the scoring through Henry Penn in the first minute and James Bradley and Jacob McCudden scored on either side of the mid-term break in the first half. Sam Anderson scored the Pickers fourth 20 minutes into the second half.

Anderson's form was one of the most pleasing aspects of the game for the Pickers..

"I thought Sam Anderson was our best, he went on at the 30 minute mark and played the rest of the game," Lantry said. "It's good to see Sam getting back to those minutes he is accustomed to playing and his contribution was by far our best."

Lantry said he was confident the Pickers would learn from the loss and benefit from a tight game after several recent blowout wins.

"We haven't had a tight game since we played Hills in round three and we spoke at half-time about the fact we needed this type of contest," he said.

"We needed to grind and scrap and see how we defend under pressure and how we execute under pressure.

"I thought it was a better second half than first half, but we just didn't take our opportunities with the ball.

"Our attack was a bit flat, it lacked the spark it had over the last few weeks.

"We've certainly got some areas to improve but I'm confident we will."

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