Tumut has cruised into the Group 9 Grand Final after recording a dominant 46-10 victory over the Temora Dragons in the Major Semi-final at Nixon Park last Sunday.
The Blues trekked to Temora with their tails up after dispatching the Wagga Kangaroos 30-10 in the Qualifying final the weekend prior.
In contrast, the Dragons were a month between games when taking on Tumut and had no answers for a bullocking Blues pack led by co-coach Zac Masters, plus the barnstorming duo of Michael Fenn and Jacob Stuart.
Masters, who only recently returned from a long-term ankle injury, believes the stars have aligned as Tumut chase their first title since 2019.
"I think we've hit our straps at the right time of year," he said.
"We've finally got our full team back on the paddock and the boys did a massive job to get us to the position we were in. Now we've got those two good finals wins under our belt heading into the Grand Final, which is exactly what we wanted."
Since their 2019 Grand Final success over South City, Tumut has gone close without winning another title.
In 2020 they lost the decider to Gundagai, while in 2021 they won the Minor Premiership before the COVID pandemic ended their premiership hopes.
Last year, more or less the same squad as this year's fell one game short of the decider.
"The job's not done yet, but it was good to qualify for the Grand Final – it’s probably a different feeling to previous years," Masters said.
"It wasn't so much excitement, but a sense of relief because we missed out on that chance last year."
It hasn't been all smooth sailing for Masters and fellow co-coach Lachlan Bristow, with their squad running into the odd stumbling block as they slowly built into the season.
"At the start of the year, it took us a little while to find our feet as we were trialling guys in new positions and looking to work on new combinations," Masters said.
"We started to play some good footy, but leading into finals, I spoke to the boys about finding another gear.”
Apart from the Tumbarumba brothers Robbie and Matthew Byatt, Englishman Jordan Anderson, who also ventures down from Tumbarumba and has been part of the squad since 2018, and Sydney recruit Michael Fenn, whose family hails from Tumut, the rest of the Blues squad are local juniors.
"That is something we're very proud of," Masters said.
Tumut will get a first-hand look at their opponents on Sunday with the Preliminary Final between the Temora Dragons and Wagga Kangaroos to be played at Tumut's Twickenham Oval.
'Roos won their way into the semi-final beating Young 30-24 in the Elimination Semi-final in Albury on Saturday.
Masters couldn't pick a winner, but he admitted he'll be watching on with considerable interest.
"It's hard; it could go either way," he said.
"Temora will be better for the run this week and next week if they make the Grand Final, but Roos' will be hard to beat with James Smart back in the halves and Latrell (Siegwalt) back at fullback.”
