Minor premiers Tongala and the second-placed Magpies will meet at Moama Recreation Reserve, with both sides hoping to be the ones to hold the premiership trophy aloft after the final siren.
With the clash set to take place in front of a blockbuster crowd at Moama’s home ground, reserves coach Darcy Hall said there was a buzz about the playing group and the club.
“Everyone is really excited. The players, the supporters, the committee; everyone is just pumped, especially to have a home final too,” Hall said.
"For reserves players, we don’t get to be in the spotlight too often. Having a home crowd here, it will be as big as Good Friday.
“There will be a massive crowd here and an awesome atmosphere, nice and loud. It will be a good thing for the midday show to get the recognition they deserve, I believe.”
Meeting for the fourth time this season, the Magpies will finally be hoping to get one over a Blues side that has bested them in each of their three previous meetings.
The Blues won by 78 points and 29 points during the home-and-away season, and most recently earned a 21-point win in the semi-final a fortnight ago.
That defeat forced Moama to take the long road to the grand final, but the Pies topped Mulwala by 52 points last week in the preliminary final to set up a rematch against the Blues in the decider.
Hall said his side was due for a win over Tongala.
“I think in general we knew what we had to get done to play Tonny, I think we owe them one after they beat us three times now,” he said.
“We know what we didn’t do well against them. Everyone has shown that they deserve to be in this team and they want to play and we can match it with anyone.”
The Magpies coach added that his side would have a different look on Saturday compared to previous times the two sides have met.
“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, we have had a fair few blokes come back from injury at the same time,” Hall said.
“We have had a few blokes who have really come into some form late in the year and a few blokes that weren’t there the first couple of times we played them, so everyone is hoping to find that groove.
“We have eight or nine blokes who are putting their hands up to play who were out last week, everyone is in awesome form and injury-free.”
While any premiership win is significant, Hall said a victory on Saturday would be extra sweet for this group of Moama players.
“There are a fair few blokes here who are heading off to uni next year or heading down to Melbourne for work, we have some really young guys and others who might be close to hanging up the boots. It would be pretty awesome with the group we have,” he said.
Moama and Tongala met in the 2015 reserves grand final, with the Magpies earning a nail-biting two-point win that day.
That premiership was the first of two in a row for Moama, with the Magpies going back-to-back the following year after a 17-point win over Barooga.
The Pies last played in a reserves grand final in 2018, falling to Mulwala by a solitary point.
Tongala meanwhile won the reserves premiership in 2019, the most recent time the grand final was played.
The team: Moama reserves
Coaches: Darcy Hall and Matt Veitch
5 - Clay McGregor
7 - Kyle Phipps (C)
15 - Dylan Pinney
16 - James Whitehead
20 - Grady Ward
22 - Kyle Baker
28 - Jacob Simpson
29 - Daine Lowry
30 - Hugh Macaulay (VC)
31 - James Mackenzie
33 - Matt Veitch
34 - Dylan Jardine
35 - Kristian McNicol
36 - Jarrah Langdon
37 - Jaryd Day
38 - Bailey Grubb
39 - Noah Milner
40 - Khy Stovell
41 - Ryan Simmons
44 - Jake Galpin (VC)
45 - Jake Kilmartin
46 - Judd Lanyon
48 - Matt Cartwright
49 - Clay Poidevin
50 - Taj Ritchie
51 - James Gillivan
52 - George Preston
54 - Josh Smith
56 - Riley Murphy
57 - Jake Cardilini
58 - Josh Pell
64 - Angus McKindlay
65 - Johno Henderson