Rival Maitland first grade skippers Matt Trappel and Mitchell Fisher believe this year's finals will be the closest fought in several years with any one of the four semi-finalists capable of winning the premiership.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Wests captain Fisher and City's Trappel are on either side of the draw in the semi-finals, which are played on Saturday and Sunday, and are both hoping to meet in the grand final for the second year in a row.
The Plovers made it back-to-back minor premierships with victory in the final round against Eastern Suburbs and will meet Thornton on the Thunder's home ground after Thornton Oval was rated as the best ground by clubs.
City who finished third take winning form into their semi-final against Kurri Weston Mulbring at Lorn Park.
Fisher said when Wests started the season without key premiership players Aaron Mahony, Michael Rees and Tom Irwin no one would have given them a chance of finishing on top again.
"To be honest I think there were some doubts about whether we would even make the finals," Fisher said.
"I always thought our bowling was going to be our strength and put us in winning situations in most games.
"Our pace attack led by Harry King and Luke Kealy along with our spinners have delivered.
"But I think it's our batting which has exceeded expectations and put us in this position.
"Justin Lantry opening, Zac Gayfer and Shannon Threlfo have been our batting mainstays.
"Justin is one of those players who can launch an attack and swing a game your way in a couple of overs. Zac has been the anchor of many of our innings and made plenty of runs.
"Shannon has taken his game to a new level. I challenged him at the start of the season to take that leading role and he has stepped up.
"He has put together a lot of runs. Over the last part of the season his lowest score apart from 23 not out on the weekend was in the 40s and he has a couple of 80s."
Trappel agreed with Fisher's assessment of Threlfo's importance and the strength of their bowling attack.
He said Kurri Weston Mulbring and Thornton were both dangerous teams with some real stars such as Steve Abel and Jono Gabriel who needed to be kept quiet for any chance at victory.
"Opening bowler Elliot Maher has been an important addition to Kurri's attack and Steve Abel is a star with the bat and ball.
"At Thornton you don't have to look any further than Jono Gabriel. He can turn a match on his own with his batting."
Trappel said he believed City were probably the best balanced side, with a strong pace and spin bowling attack and a top six batters who were all capable of scoring big runs.
"All of our top six have had big scores this year. It's a good position to be in as we are not reliant on one batter to get our runs," he said.
"We've had probably three bad days all season and it has cost us with losses. Our recent loss to Wests was a disappointing batting performance but we pushed them and had them eight wickets down.
"There's very little between all four teams, but I feel it will probably be us and Wests in the grand final again."
In second grade Northern Suburbs play Kurri Weston Mulbring at Robins Oval and City play Raymond Terrace at Kurri Central.
Third grade: Paterson v Norths; SMR v Raymond Terrace. Fourth grade: Easts v KWM; Easts Blue v Tenambit Morpeth. Fifth grade: KWM v Wests; Thornton v Tenambit Morpeth.
In other sports news
Michael Hartshorn
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
Since starting in 1985 at the then Melbourne Herald, journalism has taken me around Australia from Victoria, to the Northern Territory, Cairns in Queensland and now Port Stephens. After all those years there is still something special about informing and connecting with readers.
