Old foes will renew hostilities on Saturday night in the Country Basketball League north east men’s grand final with Seymour Blasters and Benalla Breakers set to battle it out for silverware.
The two outfits, who finished the regular season occupying the top two spots on the ladder, will meet on the big stage almost 12 months on from when Seymour edged out the Breakers in the title decider.
Benalla enters the clash as underdog, with the Blasters yet to drop a contest all season.
The Breakers punched their ticket to the big dance with a thrilling 95-85 semi-final victory over Myrtleford Saints on Saturday night, while Seymour glided past Wallan Panthers with a barnstorming 87-68 win at the recently renamed Gerry O’Rourke Stadium.
The win at the weekend pencils in a rematch of last year’s CBL North East grand final, with the Blasters to take on Benalla Breakers at Albury’s Lauren Jackson Stadium.
One of the powerhouse clubs in recent CBL history, the Blasters are eyeing off their 10th piece of men’s silverware in 14 years.
One man who has been along for the ride every step of the way is head coach Craig Hockley.
The Blasters’ mentor said there was some aspect of relief that his undefeated outfit was able to book a ticket in the big dance.
“Yeah there’s definitely some (relief) there,” Hockley said.
“There’s always that added pressure I guess when you haven’t lost a game, so it was a bit of relief to get the win.
“Winning games in the season mean nothing if you don’t make it through to a grand final. We understand there’s still a lot of work to get done.”
Hockley’s Benalla counterpart Wally Armstrong hopes his side doesn’t have to experience the same emotions as last year.
Armstrong said he was under no illusions as to how tough the assignment would be at Albury on Saturday night.
“We don’t want to go through what we went through last year, but there has to be a winner and there has to be a loser, and to win it you’ve got to make it, which we’ve done,” he said.
“It’s now down to two. They are an undefeated team, so for us to win the title we are going to have to take down Goliath.
“We’ve got to leave nothing in the tank. This will be the last game this playing group plays together, so we will head over to Albury with nothing to lose and hopefully give them a good shake.”
Benalla stands in the way of another memorable premiership for Hockley and his charges, with the Breakers ending the regular season with the second-best record.
“Height will be the issue for us, they’ve got their twin tower duo,” Hockley said.
“That’s going to make it hard for us, but we might be able to cause them trouble offensively with them having to match up on our smalls.
“We pride ourselves on our defence and we’ll try to take it up to them.”